A COUPLE'S £400,000 dream home is to be demolished because they failed to get planning permission.

Builder Peter Howell had hoped he and his wife, Kay, could retire to the five-bedroomed property in Ingleby Arncliffe, near Stokesley, North Yorkshire.

But members of Hambleton District Council this week ordered the house to be knocked down.

Mr Howell, 60, of Elton, near Stockton, said: "I'm absolutely devastated at the result and my wife has taken it worse than me.

"We were planning to downsize and live in the house.

"It's going to cost me a lot of money and I'm not a rich man."

Mr Howell has tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the council after several retrospective planning applications were turned down.

He said: "It sounds ludicrous now, but you have to understand we built on the land without planning permission for commercial reasons.

"We were assured by the planning officers that they would support the application, but unfortunately the planning committee took a different view."

Outline planning permission for a house on the land was granted in 2004. Mr Howell then built the house without full planning permission. He made four retrospective applications, but all were rejected on issues such as the height of the property.

The council began enforcement action against Mr Howell last April and on Thursday, councillors met to consider their options.

Councillor Geoff Ellis, chairman of the development control committee, said: "Those options included whether further amendments to the last refusal met approval but, after lengthy discussion, it was resolved unanimously that there was only one satisfactory resolution to this problem - and that was demolition.

"Mr Howell built a house without planning permission and must now face the consequences.

"It is not common for a planning authority to take this step, but it is one members feel must be taken if we are to comply with the form of development that was envisaged when outline planning approval was originally granted for this site."

Formal notification of the decision will be sent to Mr Howell next week.

Councillors say demolition will take place as soon as possible.