A HOUSE built one metre too wide has been allowed to stay in place.

Councillors decided to approve the retention of Corges Cottage in Dodd Lane, Westhoughton, after an application by Frank Harrison.

The house was built after permission was given in March 2012 to demolish a farmhouse and build a replacement four-bedroom property in its place.

However the footprint of the completed building is 1.07m bigger than that detailed on the approved plans.

Cllr Nick Peel said they had to judge the application as if it were a fresh bid to build on the

He said: “Some people think there should be an automatic refusal on these applications.

“It is not the planning committee’s job to be a court, that is not the role of the planning committee.

“We have to ask if we would have approved this when it first came to us, as a wider building, and I don’t think this should stop us approving it now.”

Cllr Elaine Sherrington and Cllr Bob Allen urged the planning officers to take whatever options were open to make sure this problem of developers overbuilding did not increase.

Cllr Allen added: “It is becoming more and more common.

“They do not build a metre too big by accident.

“The building control supervisor has some responsibility for this. It is their responsibility to check the building is the right size.”

Westhoughton Town Council had opposed the application as an unreasonable development within green belt land.