Boundary dispute no concern of councillors, committee told

They were told at last Thursday's meeting not to judge an application concerning two adjoining properties in the Old Town conservation area on the dispute but solely on whether the application affected the applicants' home as a Listed building

Before the committee was a complex issue affecting two Church Street cottages.

Members had to resort to the overhead screen on which a scale drawing and a photograph were displayed.

Officers explained that the applicant's cottage forms part of a mid-terrace and was accessed by a narrow twitten.

The application was for Listed Building Consent to extend the ground floor living area by incorporating part of an existing cupboard space between the cottage and a neighbouring property as a recess.

Officers said the previous owners had already removed part of the wall to the cupboard which made the wall unsafe.

They said the current owners had removed more of the wall to prevent its collapse.

"The area of wall to be removed is internal to this cottage and behind is revealed the internal party wall to the neighbouring property..."

Planning officer Roger Scott told members: "The party wall argument is a matter which is outside your consideration today."

What members had to consider was whether the application was reasonable in terms of the building's Listed status.

Officers had recommended granting consent.

Cllr Deirdre Williams successfully moved that consent be refused on the grounds of the effect on the Listed property.

Ward member Cllr Stuart Wood said the adjoining property was built in 1590 as a farmhouse. The adjoining cottage was built around 1700 as a farmworker's cottage. The passageway between them had originally led to an outside toilet and to the Rectory, which then stood on the site of the present community centre.

He said: "I would ask that you refuse it and ask for the wall to be reinstated "

Without the wall, he said the neighbours' wattle-and-daub wall was all that stood between any fire spreading, leading to the destruction of the properties.