A RETIRED doctor may be forced to pay £120,000 to demolish his home after planning rules were broken.

Dr Mohammed Sidda was given permission to build the house, worth several hundred thousand pounds, on a site in Regent Road, Lostock, in 2011.

But a planning appeal hearing at Bolton Town Hall was told yesterday that the eventual structure was bigger and built further forward than the permission granted.

Government planning inspector Richard Perrins was told the differences were the result of Dr Sidda falling ill and being forced to leave the project management to his son, who was “inexperienced” at dealing with builders and the planning process.

Bolton Council claims the house is “overbearing” and wants it knocking down, which would cost Dr Sidda an estimated £120,000 — a move which his representative, David Manley QC, branded “disproportionate and unnecessary”.

Mr Manley said Dr Sidda wanted to make adjustments to the plans instead, changes the council claims would be “inadequate”.

Opposing the plans at the meeting, Dr Margaret Collier, chairman of Lostock Residents’ Group, said: “If you were to walk down Regent Road you would see people walking past and looking up in astonishment.

“It’s not in keeping with the character of the area at all. It’s the dominance of it on that plot that’s the worry.”

Bolton Council planning officer Andrew McGlone said: “It has an overbearing nature, not only (when seen) from Regent Road but from two minor highways either side of the site.”

The hearing was told Dr Sidda, aged 67, had worked for the NHS for 34 years before retiring on medical grounds and had undergone a kidney transplant.

Mr Perrins was told Dr Sidda was living with his son but needed to move out because of the presence of children in the house which, he said, increased the risk of him catching infections.

Dr Sidda told the hearing: “I’m sorry for what’s happened. I never intended it to happen this way.”

Mr Perrins made a visit to the site yesterday afternoon and will announce his decision in the next few weeks.