Bizarre row over East Lothian garden planter ends up in court after homophobic slur
The complaint said the planter overshadows his privacy
A bizarre row sparked after a neighbour accused an elderly lady of “spending hours” tending to her new planter has ended up in court.
Robert Fair, 62, complained repeatedly after Jane Higgins, 75, had the planter installed in the front garden of her semi detached home.
The pensioner spends her days looking after the plants, flowers and ornaments within it.
But her family were shocked to learn that a neighbour had complained about the garden structure meaning they needed to apply for retrospective planning permission.
The sole objector said that the planter overshadows his privacy "as the neighbour spends hours attending to their plants”. He also claimed the construction of the planter "caused disruption to street parking" when it was installed in April last year and described it as a "hideous eyesore”.
Fair argued it had become a "haven for cats who use it as a litter tray" and that cats would "fight at night causing excessive noise”.
But the row in Aberlady, East Lothian, has now ended up in court where Fair was fined for shouting a homophobic slur at Mrs Higgins’ son.
The abusive comment towards Craig Newton-Higgins was during an incident on the village’s The Pleasance in October last year.
Mr Newton-Higgins was leaving his mother’s address when he heard Fair call him “a queer”.
The incident was reported to the police and Fair was subsequently arrested and charged.
Fair appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, and making an offensive remark towards Mr Newton-Higgins.
Fair, who has since moved to a new home, was fined a total of £210 for the offence.
Speaking after the case, Mr Newton-Higgins, 55, said he was delighted that Fair had moved away since the incident after the bitter planning row.
He said: “I’m very relieved this is all over and my mum can get back to being her old self. Since he has gone, she is very happy and I’ve noticed a huge change in her for the better.”
Jane's family had previously said they thought it was a joke when they were first told they needed planning consent. The garden planter is around 7m in length, 0.9m wide and 0.8m high and was built with timber planks.
Her family say she is in her garden every day and they described the planter as “beautiful”.
After spending several hundreds of pounds on architect and planning fees, permission was eventually granted to allow the planter to stay.
In its decision, a planning officer for East Lothian District Council, wrote: "The raised planter is visible from the public road to the northwest, it is however only some 0.8m in height and is similar in its height and overall appearance to boundary enclosures which are present within the surrounding area.
"The raised planter whilst visible is not therefore inappropriate to its garden setting and is not harmful to the character and appearance of the house or harmful to the character and appearance of the Aberlady Conservation Area."
Planners had said parking disruption, concern over cat noise and damage to property were not planning considerations.
Speaking after permission was granted, Craig described the row as "ridiculous”.
He added: "We were in disbelief about the whole thing. It is just crazy. My mum had put the planter in and never in a million years did we think she would need planning permission for it.
"But the council wrote to her and told her there had been an objection so we needed to get planning consent.
"We laughed it off at the beginning as we thought it had been a mistake. But it turns out we did. It's taken a couple of months to manage and cost a few hundred pounds.
"I got an architect I know to do it and when I told him the story he thought it was outrageous. After it was submitted we heard back in about eight weeks to say we had got permission agreed."
As part of the same application, permission was also granted for CCTV cameras at Jane's home that the neighbour had also complained about.