A DESPERATE father made an impassioned plea to council planners to allow him to build a bungalow for his disabled daughter in the back garden of her own home.
Pensioner Gordon Bird said his 41-year-old daughter’s health has deteriorated over a period of just a few months to the stage that she is unable to work and relies on a wheelchair to go any distance.
He wants to build the specially-adapted bungalow in the garden of her home on Dodworth Road, a property she has lived in for five years with her two children.
Mr Bird, who runs a newsagent’s, told councillors: “I would never have thought about building anything on this site until very dramatic changes started to unfold in June and July,” he said. “Because of very exceptional circumstances I have now put in an application to build a bungalow for a disabled person, my daughter, because of what is happening to her.
“She has been diagnosed with myofacial myalgia, fibro myalgia, urticarial vasculitis, functional neurological disorder and God only knows what else.
“These conditions cause a very great deal of pain to all the limbs and joints, immobility and loss of speech.
“She has been unable to work since July and receives no help from anywhere.
“We’ve had to buy a wheelchair because she is unable to walk any distance without suffering from a great deal of pain.
“Her partner was killed in a road accident several years ago so she has no-one to help her as her only sister died.
“If we can’t help her I dread to think what lays ahead. She has been told she needs to live in a bungalow with all the aids that she will require.
“The house she lives in is totally unsuitable for the condition she is now in.
“If permission is granted, this bungalow will be built with all the things that she needs now and all the things carers would require in the future.”
Mr Bird said the house his daughter lives in now would not be sold as it would allow him and his wife to be close by to help her.
“The bungalow would be built with all the facilities that any disabled person would need and what you would all want for your loved ones,” said Mr Bird.
“All I need to make a disabled person’s very bleak future a little brighter is for you to give permission.”
Such rear garden developments - known as backland - are not usually allowed under the council’s strict planning policy as it is considered inappropriate for a residential garden. Previous refusals for such schemes have been upheld in recent planning appeals.
Planning officer Andrew Burton said the sensitivity of the personal circumstances had been considered but the concern is that because the application is for a separate home, the council would have no control over future occupancy once approved.
“We would expect the proposals to take the form of an annex that remains linked to the main existing house.”
Head of planning Joe Jenkinson, said allowing such ‘backland’ schemes can also make it harder for the council to resist further similar proposals in future.
He said: “There is a precedent here with an appeal for a backland proposal further up and that was dismissed and it would look perverse for the authority to reach a different decision to the one by an independent planning inspector.”
He added: “It is set out in black and white Barnsley Council does not allow this form of tandem development and the problem is you get a case like this that is genuine but you get people trying it on.”
Chairman of the planning board, Coun Doug Birkinshaw, told councillors: “I think, like many of you, I am very sympathetic with the applicant.
“I believe there are alternative solutions to this if looked at closely.”
The application was deferred to allow Mr Bird to produce detailed designs that would show the building’s floor plans and how it would be tailored for his daughter.
Councillors also asked for a site visit to see firsthand concerns raised by officers about access and vehicles manoeuvring on the site.
