A new development has breached planning law by increasing the proposed height by 15 inches making it an ‘intrusive’ and ‘dominating’ house.

At the latest Planning Meeting on November 5, all councillors present agreed that the building company had breached planning law by not sticking to their original plan.

The house, in Little Bushey Lane, Bushey, has been extended in height by 15 inches and has been described as an ‘intrusive’ building for other homes in the area.

Speaking on behalf of residents David Peters said: “This is a very large house on a very small plot.

“It dominates the other housing. They are in breach of planning. Was it planned to get extra space?

“Why are we going to let this developer an extra height to his house and get away with it?”

The intrusive building was brought back to the committee due to the impact of neighbouring properties.

Bushey Heath Cllr Brenda Batten agreed and said: “When the application first came to the committee I spoke on behalf of the residents and this is a retrospective application. The house is huge and a back garden development.”

Back garden development is when a building is planned to be built on the land behind a residential house.

Cllr Batten said: “It has been built so we cannot say anything about the building but we can about the height – the land height here is much higher. It is a high building and it is very intrusive and 15 inches makes a heck of a difference.

“Developers now think they can get away with it and think they can do what they like. I am asking the committee to think hard about the application.”

All of the committee were in agreement with Cllr Batten and the unanimous decision was to refuse the application.

The enforcement development team will take action against the already built home and the developers will either go to appeal or the roof will have to come down.