Elderly widow who built £10,000 memorial garden for late husband ordered to tear it up - because she didn't have planning permission

An elderly widow who spent £10,000 transforming a muddy field into a picturesque memorial garden for her late husband has been ordered to tear it up by council chiefs - for not having planning permission.

Pensioner Jean Bailey, 74, spent seven years transforming her garden into a haven for wildlife as a tribute to her beloved husband, John.

The keen gardener, a clerk for a housing association, died in 1994 of cancer aged 56.

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To honour his memory, she painstakingly installed a pond with flower beds and an immaculate lawn on 10ft of land - which had previously been a boggy marsh.

But Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council planners informed the retired florist in March she had built on green-belt land and must tear up her garden in Harriseahead, Staffs.

They bizarrely claimed the garden - complete with 60 fish, frogs, newts and bird and insect life 'erodes the character and quality of the area'.

But later that month councillors backed down and agreed they would not take enforcement action to make her return it to a muddy field.

Delighted Jean was told that she had six weeks to submit a fresh planning application to change the use of the land - which was expected to be approved.

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But she was dealt a second blow when council planners refused to accept the planning application.

The authority said they would review the decision again if Mrs Bailey resubmitted her application as a single property within 21 days.

The frail pensioner says she is now 'back to square one' and that the council's heavy-handed actions have effected her health.

The mother-of-one said: 'First they told me that I had to tear it down and then they backed down, and I thought I had won.

'It's been a living nightmare and its made me feel ill.

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'It was a boggy mess before but now we have frogs and newts and birds and fish - it's a little oasis.

'These green-belt laws are there for a reason - but to protect against big developments and safeguard wildlife.

'I'm protecting wildlife with my little pond and I've used up 10ft of green-belt land which was essentially an eyesore before.

'It reminds me of my husband who died in 1994 - it has acted as a memorial to him.

'I'm devastated by their decision, they have just set me up to knock me back down again.

'I live for my garden. It is my pride and joy and I would rather go to prison than lose it.'

At Newcastle Borough Council's planning committee meeting on Tuesday evening, Councillor David Stringer said: 'We are in a really terrible situation here because if we do agree to allow this application then it could open up a whole new can of worms for other areas to encroach on green belt land.

'It is a lose–lose situation, we do not want what is a very nice, albeit illegal, development, to be destroyed, but we can't have people taking bits out of the green belt as and when they please.'