Owner of award-winning Chesterfield balcony 'very angry' as council still wants it taken down - despite 1,000 signatures on petition to save it

Mark Strong was first asked by the council to take down his balcony, which won the best Christmas decorations award twice in 2021 and 2022, at the beginning of September.

Since then, Mr. Strong has launched paper and online petitions in a bid to save it – with about a thousand residents signing it in the last few weeks.

He has also pointed out to the council that the balcony has been in place for about five years now – which means it could possibly be saved under the four-year planning rule, which allows legitimising unlawful developments that have been in place without planning permission for at least four years.

Today (October 12), Mr Strong has received another letter from the council, asking him to take down the balcony by the end of this month.

The letter reads: “It has been brought to my attention that an extension in the form of a free-standing raised balcony has been built to the rear of your property. The balcony extends beyond the rear boundary of your garden above land owned by Chesterfield Borough Council. It would also appear that the Council land beneath the balcony has been cleared and planted with shrubs. This has been carried out without the Council's permission.

“This is an encroachment onto Council owned land and, indeed, is trespass onto Public Open Space which the Council has a duty to protect. The structure needs to be removed by 31 October 2023 and any occupation of the land beneath the extension must cease immediately. I look forward to hearing from you once the above works have been completed.”

After receiving the letter, Mr Strong said: “I am very angry. We’ve got about 400 signatures online and over 600 on paper petitions.

“I would like to appeal to everyone who wants to save the balcony to sign the online petition. Let’s hope we can get the 1,000 signatures on the E-petition so the council would have a full meeting on the issue. If we can’t get this many, I still have the paper version on standby.”