BLACKBURN'S deputy mayor will have to pull down her half-built conservatory after planners decided it breached council policy.

Despite neighbours of Coun Dorothy Walsh writing to the planning committee saying they had no objections, the proposed extension was turned down because it would block light.

Committee chairman Coun Jim Smith, used his casting vote to refuse the plan.

Coun Walsh, a councillor for Higher Croft, Blackburn, fell foul of planning regulations when builders began laying foundations for the conservatory at her Hereford Road, Whitebirk.

Despite claiming she'd been told she wouldn't need planning permission, she stopped work and submitted a retrospective application.

All applications submitted to the council by councillors have to be decided by the committee.

The plan was recommended for refusal at the committee but Lib Dem councillor Paul Browne, asked it to approve the application.

He said: "There is nobody playing heck about it but it is down here for refusal. I recommend we approve as no neighbours have complained."

But planning officer Chris Livesey told the committee: "Under council policy the extension is one that contradicts normal rules."

Coun Walsh, had warned that she would take the council to a planning appeal if her application was refused, but today declined to comment.