A HOMEOWNER is fighting to keep a four-foot gorilla statue attached to the front of her house, after the council ordered her to remove it.
Adele Teale mounted the resin primate outside her two-bed terraced home last year, but she has been told by Wakefield Council the statue “caused harm to the greenbelt” and required planning.
The primate is a popular addition to the street said Adele[/caption]
“I love gorillas, I think they’re amazing” said homeowner Adele[/caption]
The 58-year-old insists the £600, 4kg gorilla, nicknamed Caesar, is a beloved addition.
Adele said: “I think he looks amazing.
“Kids love to come by and see Caesar.”
Caesar was installed on a wooden plinth between the two upstairs windows of the house in December.
Adele received a letter from the local council on May 27 informing her of a complaint about an “animal structure” erected on her property.
She said she can’t understand why “beautiful” Caesar is a problem if he is properly secured and can be taken down, despite the council’s claim the statue is “structural.”
“I could put a Christmas tree up there if I wanted. I own the house, it’s mine so surely I can have what I want outside to decorate it”, she added.
The council cited the Town and Country planning Act 1990 and said Caesar may have required planning permission.
Adele claimed she called the council several times to discuss a retrospective planning application but “never heard back”.
The mum-of-one received an enforcement notice on July 10 that said Caesar is “a prominent, eye-catching structure and is out of character with the surrounding area.”
The council claimed Caesar threatens the greenbelt and “has made a negative effect on the areas landscape”.
Adele, who works for Leeds City Council passenger travel, appealed the notice on August 11.
She argued that the beloved gorilla is little more than a garden ornament.
“I love gorillas, I think they’re amazing and Caesar makes me smile – he makes me happy” she said.
Adele saw Caesar in a pet supply store in 2005 and it was a no-brainier: “he just stood out for me, I just thought he was really beautiful”.
The statue sat on the outside wall of Adele’s previous house in Belle Isle, Leeds for 15 years and never received any objections.
“I just don’t really understand what the issue is now we’ve moved here.”
Caesar is extra sentimental after Adele paid £600 to buy him back from a woman she previously sold him to.
“I was gutted when I sold him so I called the lady who bought him back up two days later.”
Adele’s campaign against the council has spread in the neighbourhood and she said even the binmen shout “save Caesar” when they pass.
She insisted that her neighbours have no qualms with Caesar and he is popular with passers by who pause to take him in.
“I can’t see what harm it’s doing and I really don’t want to take it down – it’s just an ornament after all” she continued.
“We can appreciate that not everyone will agree, but under planning rules this is not classed as a minor decorative feature,” said Wakefield Council’s Service Director for Planning, Transportation and Strategic Highway’s, Joe Jenkinson.
“It’s also out of character with the surrounding area, So, it requires planning permission.
“As an appeal has already been made, the notice has not taken effect and will only do so if the appeal is dismissed.”
Adele purchased Caesar 20 years ago at a pet supply store[/caption]
Adele made an appeal against the council’s enforcement notice in August[/caption]
A council spokesperson said the gorilla is out of character with the surrounding area[/caption]