Paul MacDonald (54) from Fareham, has been battling for four years with Fareham Borough Council over a garage he orignally built without planning permission. He has since been refused planning permission and now the council want the garage to be taken down by January 8, 2024.
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00:00 Hi, I'm Mr Macdonald, Paul Macdonald.
00:02 Paul, explain what's been happening over the past four years.
00:06 Well, we've been battling with the council for the last four years,
00:13 building our garage that was denied planning four times.
00:21 So, yeah, that's where we're at at the moment.
00:24 We've been battling with the Ferry and Borough Council for four years.
00:26 We feel like we've been, I don't know, how can I put it, bullied a little bit, you know.
00:35 We've tried to do everything in our power to, you know, appease the council by putting in different plans
00:43 to lower the roof, do this, do that, but nothing seems to be good enough.
00:47 So, yeah, that's where we're sort of at at the moment. Yeah, unfortunately.
00:53 So tell me how this has made you feel.
00:55 Well, it's annoying. It's very annoying.
00:58 You know, it's almost like you can't have an adult conversation with Ferry and Borough Council.
01:02 It's, you know, anything you suggest, it's poo-pooed or, you know, it's not.
01:09 Yeah, it's just frustrating. Very, very frustrating.
01:12 What would you like to see the outcome?
01:15 Well, I'd just like to have my garage where I can store my equipment in, you know.
01:21 That's all I want, really.
01:23 You know, as I said to you earlier on about the Wellborn, we've got 7,000 houses being built behind us.
01:29 We've got another 120, 156 outlying planning for the bottom of the road.
01:35 We've just had 26 houses built at the bottom of the road.
01:38 There's two houses being built in somebody's back garden.
01:40 There's three houses being built in somebody else's back garden down there, and I can't have a shed.
01:45 So, as you can imagine, I'm very frustrated.
01:48 And what are the reasons why they're asking you to remove the garage?
01:52 Well, basically, they're saying that it's harmful for the...
01:55 It's harming the area and the open spaciousness of the area itself.
02:00 And you said earlier it wasn't in keeping with the area.
02:03 Yeah, they said it's not in keeping with the area because, you know,
02:07 it doesn't blend in with anything else, apparently.
02:10 But, you know, if you look at Funtly Village, every house is different.
02:15 So, it's, yeah, like I say, it's very frustrating.
02:18 We've got houses that were built in the 1980s over here.
02:21 This house was built in 1836 along with the pub.
02:24 So, we are the original houses of Funtly Village.
02:27 We've tried to keep it in, you know, as best as we can with oak and, you know,
02:31 using all the materials that they used back in those days.
02:34 So, yeah, it's just very frustrating, very frustrating indeed.
02:38 And so, where are you now with the council in terms of...
02:42 Well, basically, they've told us they've got to the 8th of January this year to take it down.
02:50 So, basically, it's gone into enforcement.
02:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]