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Residents' four year battle over `eyesore'

From the Echo, first published Tuesday 29th Oct 2002.

RESIDENTS have spent more than four years and £10,000 fighting an unauthorised extension which is blighting their homes.

The three-storey "eyesore" was built in Knyveton Road, Bournemouth, in 1998 and is taller and wider than planning permission allowed.

Since then, the owner has lost a planning appeal, ignored an enforcement notice and disappeared to Indonesia, leaving the building half-finished.

Owner Shaydad Ahmed, of Jakarta, did not appear before Bournemouth magistrates last Friday to answer two charges brought by Bournemouth Borough Council of failing to comply with an enforcement notice.

The case, which had been to court twice before, was adjourned until December 20 so the court could establish whether papers had been successfully served on him.

Elizabeth Spreadbury, of Woodford Road Residents Group, appeared before the council's cabinet last week to ask councillors to consider putting a compulsory purchase order on the property.

"We know from past experience that the developer is never going to comply with anything you ask him to comply with," she told councillors.

She said two developers had shown interest in the site and one was "extremely keen" to buy it from the council if it sought a compulsory purchase order.

"We're just so anxious that this doesn't go on any longer. We've really had enough. One of our neighbours in the road has become ill through the stress of it all. Our properties will be devalued," she said.

East Cliff councillor David Clutterbuck said the extension was an "eyesore". He added: "This has been going on for four and a half years. This is in a conservation area. The residents there are saying `You're my councillor, why aren't you doing something?'"

Fellow ward councillor Michael Filer claimed at a recent meeting of the council's planning board that the developer had deliberately deceived building regulations officers.

"When the plans were originally approved, footings were dug and inspected and a certificate was given. Within hours of that certificate being given, under cover of darkness, the first set was covered up and the footings were extended," he told councillors.

"The residents have spent over £10,000 in legal fees which they've put in themselves. They're doing everything they possibly can and at the end of the day they're just getting a smack in the face."

The council's cabinet agreed to investigate the prospect of seeking a compulsory purchase order.

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