Our neighbour built MASSIVE home gym on drive – it’ll be a nightmare for parking & endanger our kids… so we got revenge
A NEIGHBOUR row over a “dangerous” home gym has led to residents getting their revenge and the council being forced to intervene.
Emma Woodley and Paul Willis have divided locals after they spent tens of thousands of pounds on the structure in Basingstoke, Hants.
The home gym was erected in one of the two spaces on their £440,000 property.
Paul, who runs his own personal training business, believed he would be able to build the single-storey building without planning permission.
But disgruntled neighbours have since called the structure “dangerous”, with one resident claiming Paul and Emma now park on the corner of the road – causing visibility issues for drivers.
Another local who didn’t want to be named told the Mail Online: “We have already had issues and accidents because of the parking”.
Finally seeking revenge, complaints led to action by the local authority.
Councillors rejected the pair’s retrospective application on the grounds it would “set a precedent” and have ordered the structure be pulled down.
Officials claimed if other residents followed suit, there could be “no other parking spaces” left on the street.
Local Olivia Lucas said in a letter objecting to retrospective planning permission: “As a resident, we already have parking issues with either cars parking fully on the road and other users being unable to get past, or parking on the pavements and pedestrians routinely putting themselves, children and dogs in danger having to walk out from a blind spot behind one of these cars.
“As this property has already been erected I have witnessed the danger that this owner is causing by parking their car on the road rather than on the driveway that once was (not to mention all of their client’s [sic] cars on a Tuesday night).
“People turning into [the road] have to use up the full width of the road because they are unable to see the any oncoming traffic due to [their] car being parked on the road and therefore a head-on collision is inevitable at some point.”
But Emma, 43, has insisted she and her husband don’t park on the street and instead use nearby spaces which haven’t been allocated.
She said: “Of the 18 that are unallocated spaces, there are five to six empty at any one time.
“We didn’t use both of those spaces prior to the building being built anyway, just because of the constant need to keep pulling out into a road which we didn’t have good visibility to see, causing more of a hindrance to pedestrians and drivers.
“There’s a bend to the road and a hill, so we have to be on the road to get safe visibility about whether it’s safe to move out or not.”
Emma also argued clients who train in the gym are asked to park in unallocated spaces nearby, rather than on the street.
The devastated couple claimed their loss will have a significant impact on Paul’s business.
Some locals have also hit back at claims that the gym is a nuisance, with one calling the ordeal “silly” because “they are not harming anyone”.
Others felt the council’s order was going too far and that if it’s not an “eyesore” there was no reason for it to go.
Emma branded the ordeal “ludicrous” and highlighted how other residents have caravans and sheds on their driveways.
This comes after a woman sparked outrage after cutting down her neighbour’s tree.
Kelsea Jade, from the UK, took to social media, showing the tree get cut down as she explained it blocked her garden from getting any sunlight.
She revealed that she had bought a south-facing property which is known to get the most sun but didn’t get the positives from it.
Kelsea said: “Are we crazy for paying to have our neighbours tree cut down? For reference, we have a south-facing garden and we get the sun for the majority of the day but from 2 till 5pm we don’t get a single thing.
“This tree completely blocks it all.”
