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Rex Mhach: ‘We would not be against an unobtrusive Juliet balcony’ |
Neighbour’s dim view of balcony
Flats will look straight into our home, says wife of top West End hairdresser
THE wife of one of London’s top hairdressers has launched a campaign against flats being built next door to her designer home at Angel.
She claims the development will enable neighbours to peek into the couple’s bedroom.
Rex Mhach – whose husband Joe Mehmet counts Shirley Bassey and Britney Spears among clients at his Joe’s Saloon in the West End’s Burlington Arcade – fears that a balcony planned for the development next to her glass-clad home in Shillingford Street will shatter the couple’s privacy.
Ms Mhach maintains she had no knowledge of the scheme until builders moved onto the site a few months ago. The couple’s two-storey home and forecourt is built on the site of a former Hovis bakery.
Islington Council’s planning department maintains it received no objections when it notified the couple that planning permission was being sought for the scheme back in 2004. But property consultant Ms Mhach vehemently denies ever receiving a letter.
Islington South and Finsbury Labour MP Emily Thornberry has written to the council, calling on planners to re-examine the case to ensure building guidelines on the rights to privacy are being adhered to. Former Lib Dem council leader Councillor James Kempton is also investigating.
Ms Mhach said: “We’re not against the flats. We would not be against an unobtrusive Juliet balcony. But they are going to include a balcony which will allow people to look directly into our home.
“Our bedroom window looks out onto our own private forecourt. We shouldn’t have to put curtains up within our own private space.”
Unless the scheme is radically altered the couple may seek a judicial review into the scheme or seek permission to raise their boundary walls. Ms Mhach added: “I feel they are not listening to me or prepared to act under their complaints procedure.”
She said that the council must have a better system to inform people about developments that potentially will affect their lives. “You wouldn’t send an important legal document through the post like this,” she added.
The council says that, as well as letters to residents, a notice about the scheme would have been attached to a wall or lamppost, as required by law.
“We don’t remember seeing any notification about this scheme,” Ms Mhach insisted. “And neither do our neighbours. If we had we would have acted on it.” |
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