An eco-warrior has fumed at “just bloody” putting a slate of solar panels onto her rustic cottage and appears to have angered the local council.
Mary Smail, 63, stuck a set of solar panels on her home without planning approval from council members in Derby, and is refusing to take them down.
The eco-friendly woman had wanted to do her bit for climate change and bypassed planning approval forms needing to be submitted to Derbyshire Dales District Council.
READ MORE: Grim Christmas baubles filled with blood, urine and semen on display in UK town centre
Planning activists knocked back her application in 2019, but Smail was left undeterred by the rejection and simply installed the panels to her rustic home regardless of council comment.
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Her solar panels went ahead despite rejection from the council due to the home being in a conservation area, with the council now attempting to enforce changes to the property.
Smail said: “When they did that, I challenged them and told them that I wanted solar panels and sent them a whole list of reasons why they should let me have them and they said ‘we probably won’t give you planning permission but you’ll have to put in an official planning permission in.’
“So I thought ‘well they’ve already told me they won’t give me permission so I’ll just bloody do it, so I just bloody did it.’”
In “just bloody” doing it, Smail was slapped with an injunction after applying for permission in retrospect.
(Image: Getty Images/Tetra images RF)
Smail saw her retrospective approval refused by the council, who ordered her to remove the panels, which Smail is now refusing to do, Metro reported.
The 63-year-old did not attend her December 1 hearing, saying: “I was supporting my partner, who is terminally ill, he is one of the M25 Gantry climbers and I went to London to support him instead of paying any attention to this.”
She was then served with an injunction at her home on December 8, with Smail saying she will fight the “blind bureaucracy that won’t listen” as they “haven’t got a leg to stand on”.
A spokesperson for the council said that they had “tried to engage with Mrs Smail to resolve this matter” and that she would need to demonstrate “special circumstances” to preserve the special interest of the property.
For the latest breaking news stories and incredible tales from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.
READ NEXT: