Tiny driveway owner wins appeal with Midlothian Council

A car owner has won a planning appeal to keep his short driveway after arguing his vehicle was small enough to squeeze into it.

The newly-built parking space is just 4.3m (14ft) long compared with a regular 6m (19.6ft). 

It was originally refused planning permission by Midlothian Council planners who felt it would cause vehicles to overhang onto a pavement.

The appeal was agreed after the man was asked to parallel park in the space.

A meeting of the council's local review body on Tuesday was told owner George Burnett's Mazda, which would be parked on the Mayfield drive was just 4.2m long with photographs showing it sitting in the space.

Peter Arnsdorf, the council's legal adviser, told a virtual meeting of the review body that paving slabs on the driveway "show the direction of travel which the vehicle, if parked on the site, would sit. It would come directly onto that driveway which is 4.3m deep."

However, councillors who visited the site on Poplar Street, Mayfield, said the slabs had been removed before their visit.

They argued a vehicle could be parked parallel on the driveway which is 7.7m wide.

The review body granted planning permission for the drive with a condition that a dropped kerb running the length of the owner's house would be introduced and fencing put up at the end of the drive is stained to a suitable colour.

An advisory note was added to the permission urging the owner to parallel park on the drive.

Reporting by local democracy reporter Marie Sharp.