Geoff Smith's truck garden
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• A Yorkshire operator has won authority to change the operating centre of his one vehicle to a 5.5x4m plot in his back garden despite opposition from the local authority and 57 local residents.
Landscape gardener and haulage contractor Geoff Smith has moved his operating centre to 1 Milton Terrace, Vine Street, Cleckheaton. Local residents complained about the number of vehicles using the road, mud on the road, noise and the spoiling of their view.
The council was concerned that it was a private residential area and that the use proposed would require planning permission. No planning application had been submitted and they argued that a private residence was not the place to carry on such a business.
Smith said that the noise and vehicle movements complained of had been a result of a contract to level land at the back of his house. That work was almost complete. He proposed to erect a garage to house the vehicle but if planning permission was refused he would keep it outside in the street which was a cul-de-sac.
Granting the application North Eastern deputy Licensing Authority Norman Moody said someone's view was not protected in English law and there was no right of prospect. Though he accepted some people could see Smith's vehicle over their garden walls he did not believe it was the intention of the legislation to protect prospect.
Planning permission was not a matter for him and he could grant the application even if the use of the operating centre was unlawful under planning law. He did not feel there would be any significant addition to the traffic hazard or that parking the vehicle would cause problems.