A bizarre war of words erupted in Scotland after a retired widow was accused of breaching her neighbour’s privacy because of a new planter in her own front garden. Jane Higgins, 74, had the planter installed in the front garden of her semi-detached home in East Lothian and enjoyed “spending hours” tending to its plants and flowers and decorating it with ornaments.
However, her family was left shocked when they were told they needed to apply for retrospective planning permission for the flower bed, as a neighbour had issued a complaint. The objection – only submitted by one person – claimed the planter was overshadowing their privacy “as the neighbour spends hours attending to their plants.” They also complained its construction “caused disruption to street parking” when it was installed in April this year and described it as a “hideous eyesore”. In addition, the complainant added it had become a “haven” for cats who used the garden “as a litter tray”, claiming that cat fights occur overnight and cause “excessive noise”.
At first, Jane’s family thought the complaint was a joke, especially when they were told they needed planning consent.
Jane’s family said she spends time in her garden every day and described the wooden planter – measuring 7m long by 0.9m wide and 0.8m high – as “beautiful and very well-tended.”
Thankfully, after spending several hundred pounds on architect and planning fees, Jane has now been granted permission to keep her planter.
In its decision, a planning officer for East Lothian District Council, wrote: “The raised planter is visible from the public road to the northwest. It is however only some 0.8m in height and is similar in its height and overall appearance to boundary enclosures which are present within the surrounding area.
“The raised planter, whilst visible, is not therefore inappropriate to its garden setting and is not harmful to the character and appearance of the house or harmful to the character and appearance of the Aberlady Conservation Area.”
The planners added that parking disruption, cat noise and damage to property were not planning considerations.
After the permission was granted, Craig Higgins, 54, described the row as “ridiculous”, adding the family were left in “disbelief about the whole thing”.
“It is just crazy. My mum had put the planter in and never in a million years did we think she would need planning permission for it,” he said. “But the council wrote to her and told her there had been an objection, so we needed to get planning consent.
“We laughed it off at the beginning as we thought it had been a mistake. But it turns out we did and has caused a lot of stress.
“I got an architect I know to do it and when I told him the story, he thought it was outrageous.
“After it was submitted, we heard back in about eight weeks to say we had got permission agreed.
“It is humorous in a way that it is just so ridiculous. It just has some plants, flowers and a few ornaments. She had some in her back garden but this was the first one she put out the front.”
Craig described his mother, a retired widow who has lived in the home for 20 years, as a woman who loves spending time in her front and back garden and “very community spirited”, getting “along well with all the other neighbours”.
