A BUILDING firm may appeal after councillors suggested one of its executive homes be demolished for failing to meet planning rules.

Charles Church builders said it had no option but to appeal after members of Stockton Borough Council's planning committee unanimously voted against granting retrospective permission for the £350,000 property.

The company's regional projects director, Peter Jordan, said the detached house in Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, had been built 30cm higher than neighbouring ones.

He said drainage issues had left the company with little choice but to alter the level of the five-bedroomed house, but said it never expected the reaction it got.

He said: "I have never come across anything as minor as this causing such a stink.

"I have been a planning officer, a consultant and a house builder, so I have seen it from all sides.

"It is such a minor discrepancy. I have got to say I think it was a poor decision by the council.

"We are talking about three or four layers of brickwork. I do not think the decision has been made on planning grounds, so I need to talk to my managing director, but my advice would be to appeal."

Councillors heavily criticised Charles Church earlier this month after it failed to secure permission on the property levels before it started to build.

Neighbours behind the new house complained that, when the house was finished and occupied, their privacy would be compromised because the kitchen window overlooked their back gardens.

Planning officers recommended retrospective permission be given, on the grounds that the kitchen window be fitted with obscure glass and permanently fixed shut, something the councillors said was unworkable.

Councillor Bob Gibson, who is on the committee, said at the time: "The answer is get it down, put it right, and then build it."

Mr Jordan said the company would be prepared to apply to take the kitchen window out, leaving the property with a patio door only in the kitchen, but he had been advised that the committee would probably not agree to that.

He said: "I do not think I need to do that because I think I am in the right.

"We just want to get on building with the appropriate planning permission."

Last night, Ingleby Barwick Councillor Lee Narroway said: "The planning committee was entirely right to refuse permission, and it was turned down on material grounds when it is riding roughshod over planning rules."