A family who built a house in their driveway insists they will not demolish it despite breaking planning permission as it is a 'gym'. Madam Pal Singh was given the green light by authorities to build a single-storey garage in 2019.
However, the construction that end up being built was far bigger, with Birmingham City Council giving the family until July to pull down the building after they lost an appeal, according to Birmingham Live. A report into the work stated the building was half a storey taller than had been expected, housing two extra rooms.
Inspector Thomas Shields also noted a pedestrian door instead of a garage door, and two more windows in the rear elevation that served a separate, smaller room.
But despite the July 1 compliance deadline passing, the building still remains standing with the owners claiming it was turned into a gym over the pandemic. They added that the property is used by several local families and is complete with exercise machines and punch bags.
Speaking to the Sun, a woman, who answered the door of the property on Vaughton Street, said: “We’ve not been told to demolish the property. We use it as a gym, we go in there every day.
"We all go in there - there are about four or five families around here. We all use the gym.
"We’re not ashamed of it. We’ve got nothing to prove to anyone. We’re not on benefits, we spent our hard-earned money to build what we’ve built.
“If and when the council decide the neighbours are moaning, get it down, we will deal with it in our own way. As it is at the moment, it’s staying.”
Another woman, who did not give her name, told the Sun: “Until the council gets in direct contact with us to tell us to demolish it, what we’re going to say to everyone is ‘f*** you because we’re going to keep it’. And that’s that."
They said: “No-one around here has a problem with it. All the neighbours think it looks nice. It was a garage, we turned into a gym during covid.
"The funny thing is when the council came to inspect it he saw all the gym equipment in there.
“There are punch-bags in there, there are other gym machines.”
A spokesperson for Birmingham City Council said: "We served an EN (enforcement notice) for the demolition of the unauthorised structure when the owner lost at appeal. We are in discussions with the owner re timeline. Compliance with the notice was due by July 1, 2022."
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