A COUNCIL has used photographs from estate agent websites to win a battle with a homeowner over unauthorised garden decking.

Belinda Cavill claimed the raised platform in the garden of her three-storey home at Woolpitch Wood in Bayfield, Chepstow, was in place when she bought the property in 2023 and was first put up by the previous owner in around 2004 or 2005.

That would have meant the decking was exempt from enforcement action, due to the time it had been in place, despite being higher than 30cm above the ground.

Ms Cavill also had a signed statutory declaration, from the former owner, supporting the claim though it also referred to repairs and parts of the decking having been upgraded.

But officials at Monmouthshire Council turned detectives and uncovered photographs of the decking on estate agents’ websites that showed differences when the property was advertised, in June 2023, and when it was listed on Rightmove in February 2013.

The council originally launched an investigation into the decking following a tip off in 2023 that it had been put up in May 2021.

That led to an enforcement notice last March, which required Ms Cavill to remove parts of the decking and related material within six months.

When she.appealed against the enforcement notice, the council claimed it could no longer rely on the tip off which sparked the probe, but provided the photographs from property websites.

Independent planning inspector Richard Jenkins, who considered the appeal on behalf of Planning and Environment Decisions Wales, said the evidence supported the council’s position.

Mr Jenkins stated in his report: “The LPA (local planning authority) has provided a screenshot from an online platform that specialises in property sales, rents and values that appears to confirm that the decking attached by the notice was substantially complete in June 2023.

“This is then contrasted with a screenshot from a similar online platform that appears to illustrate a materially different decked area in 2013.”

Aerial photography, that “also appears to demonstrate a material difference in the extent of the decked area between the years 2020 and 2023” was also provided.

Mr Jenkins stated: “I am satisfied that the evidence is sufficiently clear to confirm the council’s position that the decking has materially changed since the original decked area was constructed.

“The decking subject of the appeal has not, therefore, been in situ for a period that exceeds 20 years as alleged by the appellant.”

He acknowledged the evidence “falls short of categorically confirming” the work took place in May 2021 but said it doesn’t contradict the council’s case and there was nothing that would lead him to conclude it was “substantially complete prior to the date of immunity”.

The report stated the burden of proof is on those appealing a decision to issue an enforcement notice, and there was no substantive evidence “to discredit the council’s critical argument” that while there may have been a decked area before May 2021 the new decking was a “fresh breach of planning control”.

Mr Jenkins dismissed the appeal but amended the enforcement notice.