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Two year lilac house battle finally over.
A MOTHER’S refusal to repaint her lilac home has come to an end after more than two years of battling with local planners.
Janice Daines had vowed that she would rather go to prison than change the colour of her Grade II listed home. However Mrs Daines of Callis Street, Clare has decided to back down after being told that St Edmundsbury Borough Council would repaint the property in a more suitable colour and send her the bill for the work.
Mrs Daines said: “I discovered that it was very unlikely that I would be sent to prison, but the problem is the council can come and paint the property and then charge me for it.”
“As a single mother of two children I just cannot afford to be charged so I have decided to change the colour myself. I am absolutely gutted and disgusted by the way I have been treated….this lilac colour can be traced back 2,500 years so how can it not be historically acceptable?”
Mrs Daines first fell foul of council planners when they discovered the shocking shade in 1999 and immediately instructed her to change it. Despite several round of planning disputes, council hearings and threats of legal action Mrs Daines refused point blank to paint her home a different, more acceptable colour.
During the long running dispute disgruntled councillors likened the lilac house to “pantomime scenery” saying that it looked like it belonged in “Teletubby Land”!
However, it appears that Mrs Daines has had the last laugh after a local company specialising in painting listed buildings has agreed to mix up a special new colour and repaint her house for free!
Ted Ingilby of Ingilby Marine in Glemsford just outside of Clare, heard of Mrs Daines’ plight and has offered to mix a shade to be agreed by planners and repaint the house. As Mrs Daines cannot afford to challenge the council in the High Court, she has reluctantly agreed to accept Mr Ingilby’s offer.
“I am still very angry about it, but I am ‘caught between a rock and a hard place’ so I have no choice really”, she said. “I think it is going to be pink, but I still want it to be a vibrant shade. I cannot bare wishy-washy colours”, said Mrs Daines “it would depress me to live in a house like that.”
“I have had loads of support from people all over and I am very grateful to Mr Ingilby for offering to paint the house for me.”
St Edmundsbury Borough Council has said that Mrs Daines must choose a colour suitable for a conservation area derived from natural pigments, such as white, off-white, dark yellow or dark red.
Why not have your say in the Clare-UK Guest Book?
Was Mrs Daines right to fight or has she just wasted Planner’s time and taxpayers money?
Do you think she should have her house repainted for free?
Are you happy with the lilac colour as it is or do you think it is an unsuitable shade for historic Clare?
Quotes and some text taken from both Haverhill Weekly News and Sudbury Mercury.
Date : 20-06-2002
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