Council has won a dispute with a homeowner via garden decks by using photos of websites for real estate agents as evidence. Homeowner Belinda Klugah Cavill had argued that the increased platform in her garden in Woolpitch Wood, Bayfield, Chepstow, was already available when the property bought the property 2023.
She claimed that it had already been installed by the previous owner in 2004 or 2005. This would have released the deck of enforcement measures due to its durability, since this would have been good in the decades of threshold.
It would be able to stay as it was, although it was over 30 cm above the ground, which means that it would never have been inserted that would never have been searched. However, officials from the Monmouthshire County Council found photos on websites of real estate agents, including Rightmove, the differences in the terrace between the time in June 2023 and when they were performed in February 2013. For the greatest stories in Wales first, Register for our daily newsletter
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A photo from February 2025 that shows the completed Decking Credit: Pedw
The Council initially started to investigate the deck, after he had received a note from a member of the public in 2023 that it was installed two years in May 2021 without the required building permit. This led to a enforcement announcement in March of this year, with Ms. Cavill removed parts of the deck and the associated material within six months.
When Ms. Cavill questioned the enforcement announcement, the council admitted that he could no longer find the indication that the investigation triggered, although the photos were discovered when searching for real estate websites.
The homeowner brought the case to the Welsh government committee, planning and environmental decisions of Wales (PEDW). The independent planning inspector Richard Jenkins, who examined the appeal on behalf of PEDW, came to the conclusion that the evidence collected by the real estate websites supported the attitude of the council.
He wrote in his official report: “The LPA (local planning authority) has provided a screenshot from an online platform that specializes in real estate sales, rents and values that seems to confirm that the decking was significantly completed in June 2023. This is then with a screenshot of a similar online platform in 2013 in contrast to a significant different area in the year.”
Air photographs that “also seem to demonstrate a material difference in the extent of the deck area between 2020 and 2023” were also delivered.
The picture shows that the Decking 2013 was much different than it was shown on Rightmove Credit: Pedw
Mr. Jenkins said: “I am convinced that the evidence is sufficiently clear to confirm the position of the council that the decking has changed significantly since the construction of the original deck area.
He accepted that the evidence is “not categorically confirmed” that the work took place in May 2021, but said that it did not contradict the case of the council, and there was nothing that would make him come to the conclusion that “it was essentially completely” before the date of immunity “.
In the report it was found that the burden of proof was determined by those who questioned a decision to make a enforcement announcement, and there was no significant evidence “to discredit the critical argument of the council” that a deck area may have been given before May 2021.
Mr. Jenkins rejected the complaint, but changed the enforcement announcement and said that the message should be confirmed subject to his changes.
The Monmouthshire Council had argued that it was unable to present the original complaint, since “it no longer has the necessary approval to share this evidence as part of the appeal procedure”, but wanted to proceed with the enforcement action in the light of the alleged “public damage”.