A NEW house which has been under construction for almost two years may have to be scaled down after parts of it were built without planning permission in place.

Work on the property in Plodder Lane, which is being built in a larger footprint than the two houses that made way for it, has been on hold since March when the council issued an enforcement notice.

A third version of the plans, which first surfaced in January 2018, has been before a committee of councillors who are still not satisfied with the size of the rear dormer.

But neighbours living behind the property want the top floor to be removed completely.

Gaynor Young, who lives in Tig Fold Lane, told The Bolton News that, as it stands, anyone in the third storey of the new house can see into her children's bedroom.

She said: “I can’t see that they are going to come back with any plans that are acceptable from my children’s point of view. I’ve got a three-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son who are going to be running around the house. They are going to be taking their clothes off at some point."

The family said they did not realise how tall the new house would be until they returned from a three-week holiday and saw the scaffolding.

She added: “To me, a dormer is a conversion of a loft space so it shouldn’t be any higher. If we can see their ceiling, they can see our bedroom floor. I’m not saying they are bad people, but they may not be there forever. Somebody else might come in and I’ve got two children.”

Neighbours living on Plodder Lane, who described the new property as "overpowering" and "intimidating", said that the house is not in keeping with its surroundings in Farnworth.

Garry Bryon, who spoke on behalf of the residents at a town hall meeting last week, asked why the applicant should be trusted to adhere to any new planning permission given the history of the development.

But Amir Ali, a member of the family behind the project, blamed the contractor, who was a family friend, for not sticking to the plan.

He said: "As a customer, you just leave it in the hands of a professional, expecting them to do the best job possible. We never pulled out a tape measure to make sure he’s doing the right job because we trusted him."

Mr Ali, one of three sons, admitted that it was the family's idea to install Juliet balconies on the top floor, but has now agreed to remove them and reduce the size of the rear windows.

The planning committee decided to defer the application so that new plans could be drawn up which would involve altering the dormer.

Cllr Bob Allen said that he believes that there is a compromise can be reached.

He said: "Given that the rear face of the dormer is going to be modified anyway to reduce the size of the windows, my suggestion would be to pull the face of the dormer back by 0.4m to what was approved previously. Because that’s what we’ve approved previously. It’s important to remember that this house has approval for almost what’s there now."

Bolton Council's head of development Paul Whittingham said: “If people don’t stick to the plans then at some point either during the build or even after they have finished it, it will be checked. We have a monitoring officer now to go out and to do checks on properties. We won’t catch them all but we will be seeking to ensure that choices after people have got approval, can’t just be implemented without there being proper consents in place."