A stripey beach hut trailer can now stay parked on its owner’s driveway after the council dropped its legal fight to get it removed.
Paul Davis and Alison Bullough were being prosecuted by Brighton and Hove City Council for failing to comply with an enforcement order to remove the trailer from their Lower Rock Gardens driveway.
But the council this week officially offered no evidence, saying it was not in the public interest to proceed.
The couple started converting the trailer outside their house in Lower Rock Gardens during the first lockdown in 2020.
After neighbours complained, Brighton and Hove City Council issued an enforcement notice ordering them to remove it, on the basis it is in effect an unauthorised outbuilding.
The couple appealed, but in June 2022 a planning inspector dismissed it – mainly because the wheels and support stands were bolted into timber, and it had stood in the same place since May 2020.
But since then, they have altered the trailer – which they have named Gabriel – so it can be moved, and have taken on a trip to demonstrate it is actually a caravan.
Mr Davis said: “It should never have reached the courts.
“The whole process has been a real eye opener for me. It has caused us considerable stress, and has taken up a lot of our time.
“During the whole three years the planning department has refused to meet us to discuss the situation, despite repeated requests. That in itself is shameful in my opinion.
“Instead, they carried on issuing legal threats in the hope that the stress and pressure would make us just give up.
“Appealing the enforcement order to the high court, which costs tens of thousands of pounds, is really not possible for most people.
“In this case we felt our only option was to hold out and face the prospect of being taken to court, even at the risk of receiving an unlimited fine. Then at least we would get our ‘day in court’.
“To be fair, once Brighton and Hove Council legal officers finally got control of the proceedings, they have been extremely professional, courteous and reasonable.
“They could have put us to more unnecessary stress, but instead, even before the court case, they indicated that they would be withdrawing their claim. We are very grateful for that.
“However, the fact remains this case should never have happened at all. If the council planning department had been more reasonable, and had listened more to local public opinion, then it would never have come to this.
“But the overwhelming feeling we have at the end of this process is one of gratitude for the amazing, cheerful, fun-loving, diverse people of Brighton, who have supported us throughout, with hundreds of messages of support and encouragement.”
The council was represented at Brighton Magistrates Court on Wednesday by its senior solicitor Simon Court, who said no evidence was being offered, and so the case was dropped.
Outside court, he said: “We did not regard it as being in the public interest to proceed.”
The enforcement notice said: “It is considered expedient to issue the notice because the timber outbuilding, by reason of its scale, form, positioning and materials, is an incongruous addition in a prominent location, which has caused significant harm to the character and appearance of the property, the wide streetscene and East Cliff Conservation Area.”
I’m glad this article carries the two pictures, as shown.
The original shed that was built in the front garden was made to look like a traditional beach bathing hut – with four corner spoked wheels shown in the photograph taken a couple of years ago – but it was not actually moveable at that time.
The second picture, taken more recently on Madeira Drive, shows how the trailer chassis was added later, with central wheels – like you’ll see on a horse box trailer.
As a trailer, it then has a different status compared to a ‘shed’ or outbuilding added to a front garden, without planning permission.
When the shed version first appeared, the council quite rightly responded to neighbours’ complaints. And there is an important precedent issue here, in that we are not allowed just to build a shed, annex, or garden office in our front gardens.
Now it has become a moveable trailer, the council no longer see this as a test case they can challenge, or being in the public interest for them to do so.
This story was never really about whether you think this shed looks cute or not.
I see this shed everytime i walk down the street its parked in, the street itself is very unkept looking with lots of illegally parked cars on the double yellow lines on both sides of the road. That stupid looking ‘circus is in town’ looking shed just adds to that unsightly street. Let’s all start building sheds in front gardens and putting wheels o them in order to keep them there!
I’d have thought the big ugly communal bins the council have installed all over the town are much more unsightly. Or the giant crass looking flower pots (without flowers in them) they’ve put up Viaduct Rd. Or even the rusty, graffiti covered corrugated steal cycle hangers they’ve dumped at the Rd side.
If anyone should be taken to court for destroying the look and feel of Brighton, it should be the council (namely the incompetent Green Party)