Poor wee kids
Playtime over as council orders Wendy house to be demolished
TWO young children were left heartbroken yesterday after planning chiefs ordered the demolition of their Wendy house.
City of Edinburgh Council decided a wooden playhouse belonging to Noah Miller, four, and his three-year-old sister, Naomi, will have to be torn down after it was refused planning permission in a conservation area.
Yesterday their parents, Brian and Jessica Miller, who had the play area built in their back garden as a Christmas present for their children, were left furious by the decision.
Mr Miller said: "I think that it is a shameful decision. I don’t know what type of individual would want to knock down a children’s play area.
"Everybody that has seen it thinks that it’s great. The decision flies in the face of local opinion. My children will be heartbroken by it. To me it is grotesque."
The family were ordered to apply for retrospective planning permission after one of their neighbours complained, branding it an eyesore.
Planners recommended the tiny playhouse, named "Oor Hoose", should be taken down as it made a "detrimental contribution to the character and appearance of the area".
Yesterday the council’s development quality sub-committee upheld the decision.
Mr Miller, 36, now has just three months to remove the play area and surrounding decking - estimated to have cost £6,000 - before the council send in a demolition team.
The committee said their main problem was with the "elevated" decking on which the Wendy house sits, and that the actual house could be shifted to a lower level.
But Mr Miller said it would be impossible to remove the decking and shift the playhouse without it being destroyed.
He claimed the committee ignored the facts that the decking and Wendy house were built on the ground level which rises up at the back of his garden.
Mr Miller, who lives in a £1 million town house in the New Town added: "I offered to cover it with flag stones, paint it or use plants and flowers but all they can say is - knock it down.
"There is something rotten at the heart of this planning process. This lot have done absolutely nothing for our area."
The playhouse was visited recently by councillors after they agreed last month to give the structure a stay of execution until an inspection was carried out. During the meeting convener Trevor Davies said the fact the play house is in a World Heritage Site meant it should be removed.
He said: "This is retrospective planning in a World Heritage Site which belongs to the world and future generations, and not just the current owners. Nobody would object to a Wendy house, but the high-rise decking has to go."
Lib Dem councillor Susan Tritton said: "The decking, swing, bridge and steps make it too big a structure in this garden."
The council solicitor advised that there were no strong compassionate or personal grounds to justify planning permission.
Mrs Miller, 35, said: "It really baffles me. The sole intention behind this work was to provide a play area for our children and their pals."
The decision came after Mr Miller gathered a 50-name petition from neighbours opposing the demolition.
JONATHAN LESSWARE - The Scotsman Thursday 10th March.