Wright wins fight to stop basement dig

TELEVISION presenter Matthew Wright has won his battle against a neighbour's plan for a basement extension.

The host of daytime chat show The Wright Stuff objected to a planning application after suffering stress from noise and disruption caused by another neighbour's extension.

Camden councillors backed the complaints and threw out plans for the extension in the Primrose Hill mews.

Councillors voted against the scheme by banker Patrik Zeigherman to demolish a four-bedroom home he bought for £1.4million in 2005 and dig a two-storey basement under the house and garden.

Neighbours, including Wright, claimed the excavation would be intolerably noisy and said the council had failed to act. Wright also said noise and stress caused by another nearby basement extension had been a year-long "nightmare" and forced him to quit his Radio 2 show.

The latest application was found to breach many of the council's policies and was contrary to a guidance note by the council's deputy leader Andrew Marshall only months ago.

The note said extensions must be no more than three metres deep and should take up no more than half the garden.

Mr Zeigherman's basement is 6.9metres deep and takes up the entire garden. Wright said he was relieved by the decision but criticised the council. He said: "It's a victory, and hopefully I will not have to live through another basement nightmare. But I can't believe the shambles this has revealed in the planning department.

"What they were saying was in effect that the guidance note, fanfared by the deputy leader himself in January, was not worth the paper it was printed on."

Retired lawyer Robert Seward, whose house is next to Mr Zeigherman's, represented the neighbours at last night's council meeting. Quoting the council's own website, he said: 'Anyone wanting to excavate under their property will need to clearly explain how they propose to deal with the various environmental concerns, legal requirements and relevant civil law responsibilities.

"Applicants will also be expected to consult neighbours'. None of the above happened in this case, yet [council] officers recommended approval," he said.

A second basement application, in Hampstead, was also turned down against the officers' recommendation last night.