A garden centre facing the prospect of having to tear down a £1 million extension following planning permission issues has urged its local council to help find a sensible solution to the matter.

Members of Barrow Borough Council’s planning committee voted unanimously this week to issue an enforcement notice for the building at Charnley's Home and Garden in Cumbria to be demolished.

As reported in last week’s GTN Xtra, the council claimed owner Marc Charnley had breached planning legislation and building regulations by creating a mezzanine level that had resulted in the unauthorised sales of household furniture.

As a result of the planning breach, the committee took enforcement action, which means that they have put out a notice to Mr Charnley calling for the building to be dismantled.

Planning officials also claim the garden centre enclosed a central courtyard and resurfaced the car park without permission, causing a reduction in parking spaces. This had sparked major concerns about the safety of pedestrians, with more motorists having to park their cars along Ulverston Road, which has a speed limit of 60mph.

But the garden centre says it is still hopeful of reaching a satisfactory conclusion to the matter, issuing he following statement on its Facebook page.

“Our planning consultants have been in talks with Barrow Borough Council Planning Department since January 2016 and we weren’t informed that there was any kind of problem with the redevelopment of our site, or what we are now offering, until just this week.

“As you can imagine this has been a huge shock and we are devastated. We have put everything we have into the new Charnley’s and our aim has only ever been to offer something Dalton could be proud of and to provide something different for this area. We are a family-run business, we have been going for 20 years now and our heart is here.

“We are now waiting for a report to find out what the problems are with our site and will do everything we can to address them. We have the utmost respect for planning regulations and this has been the case throughout this entire process - we only want to work in co-operation with Barrow Borough Council.

“We are looking to it to provide us with guidance – we employ 30 local people and the focus of our business has changed not through choice, but through survival – we hope that the council will appreciate what we have tried to achieve and help us to rectify any issues they have.

“We have been overwhelmed with phone calls, emails and even visits from local people giving us their support, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank them and our loyal staff sincerely – this isn’t just our business, this has long been a labour of love and their kind words mean the world to us.”