Published: 12 January 2012
by RICHARD OSLEY

A DISTINGUISHED television and radio journalist claims she was given duff advice by council planning officers over an extension to her Belsize Park home which she may now be forced to tear down.

BBC world news specialist Zeinab Badawi’s representatives said she was concerned that Camden Council officials were not “communi­cating” properly with each other.

Ms Badawi has protested that everything she did to make more room for her family with a dormer extension, which was erected towards the end of last year, was done in “good faith”.

Construction work began in October 2010, leading to a dispute which lasted for much of last year after officers investigated the work.

Ms Badawi is now waiting on a decision due tonight (Thursday) on whether enforcement action will be taken by the Town Hall’s legal department over the add-on to her Edwardian property in a road off Haverstock Hill.

Councillors hold the final say over whether the extension must be destroyed on the grounds that it breaks conservation area guidelines and was built without permission from the council.

But civil servants reporting to them are already recommending they take tough action by ordering its removal.

Ms Badawi, presenter of Hardtalk on the BBC News channel, needs councillors to ignore guidance from planning advisers or face the bill for removing it.

In a letter to the council’s planning team, Nick Cooper, representing Ms Badawi, said: “Prior to purchasing the property, the applicant contacted the planning department at Camden Council by telephone in order to ascertain what planning permission was required and was informed that an application would not be necessary as the work could be carried out.”

He added that there had been “crossed wires caused by a complex process” but told planners: “The applicant has been caused increasing stress and extra financial cost as a result of this process and is very concerned that the relevant teams within the council do not appear to have been communicating effectively.”

Further documents submitted to the council said the “accommodation created is essential to the family’s life in that house”, and that “the property owner took advice from Camden and was acting in good faith when she had the works carried out”.

Several neighbours have written to the council asking for them to step back from ordering the demolition and are backing Ms Badawi in the dispute.

But council officials have ruled the extension breaks conservation rules.

Their report said: “The dormer extension, by virtue of its size and siting, creates an unacceptably obtrusive and incongruous form of development which disrupts the uniform appearance of the properties along the north side of the road.

Furthermore, its detailed design, both built and proposed, harms the historic character of the host building.”

If the decision goes against Ms Badawi, she could be asked to remove the extension within six months.