Businessman refuses to pull down mega-garage he built without permission
Neighbours are calling a man who built an illegal garage on his land a ‘disgrace’ after he refused to tear it down.
Romanian businessman Daniel Toma, 41, erected a massive garage with electric gates and fencing beside his end-terrace home in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, without planning permission.
Since its construction, multiple neighbours have complained to Hertsmere Council, who refused Toma’s bid at retrospective planning permissions.
Toma will now have to demolish the eyesore, but has said he will not do so, because he needs it for his ‘ambulances’.
Toma’s ambulance business provides transport for ‘mental health patients and vulnerable young people’, as well as those with ‘court appearances’.
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He said: ‘I will not remove it. People in the area do not have a problem with it.’
But those who live in the neighbourhood have very different opinions from the ones Toma claimed.
Peter Loughlin, 74, told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s an absolute disgrace. He should be ashamed of himself.
‘He’s ruined my view. I’ve lived here 30 years, and he is destroying my life. I cannot see out of it properly.
Bermet Amanaeva, 40, has lived in the area for more than ten years and said the garage is a ‘nightmare’.
‘I have to look at it every day,’ she said. ‘It’s so ugly. Also, when they drive in, they’re crossing. It’s dangerous.
‘They just do what they like. It’s an odd place, you don’t see ambulances very often. Other cars go in there. It makes me so angry.’
The massive structure is placed in the back of Toma’s home, jutting out from his £600,000 home.
What are the rules around building sheds?
Building detached garages or sheds in Hertfordshire usually don’t require planning permission if it’s a single storey, 4m high and covers less than 50% of the land around the home.
If it’s any larger than that, within two metres of a boundary line or is in front of the house, it breaks council rules.
Toma isn’t the only Brit who’s infuriated his neighbours with eyesore construction projects.
A man who built a small house on his driveway without planning permission was forced to tear it down.
The homeowner – a Mr M Singh – was originally given approval to build a single-storey garage on Vaughton Street, in Highgate, Birmingham, in 2019.
But council bosses were left stunned after discovering a small two-storey ‘house’ had been erected on the driveway instead.
Mr Singh was ordered to demolish the residential dwelling following an appeal, during which he argued there were only ‘minor differences’ to what was approved.
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