ANGRY Richmond residents are claiming that the submission of a second retrospective planning application is a delaying tactic being employed by developers to prevent enforcement action.

The Knoll, on Ormond Road, Richmond, has been described as a building that just got bigger and bigger' after it grew beyond the bounds of its planning permission. On February 27 the Richmond and Twickenham Times reported how a first application for retrospective planning permission had been withdrawn before a decision could be made and the planning committee at Richmond upon Thames Council were considering what action to take.

Now just a matter of days before the planning committee was due to make a decision about whether to issue an enforcement action the developers have entered a second retrospective planning application, much to the fury of neighbours.

Alan Payne, of Ormond Avenue, claims: "It is designed to slow down the process enough to allow the building to be completed and for the family to move in."

He believes by submitting the retrospective application the process could be delayed by several weeks.

Planning permission for the property, which is situated in a conservation area between the Victorian Unitarian Church and a Regency terrace, was awarded in February 2003. However the building currently being erected on the site is in breach of this planning application and as a result retrospective application is required.

Mr Payne insisted: "Unless the planning committee give the owners a very expensive lesson, anyone who follows them as GPS Architect's clients will, quite rightly, believe that he can get away with anything for them.

"Once we are advised of the date the council will consider the new retrospective application, the local residents will call a meeting to discuss the matter in the Church Hall of the Unitarian Church in Ormond Road, the door of which is twelve feet from the new forty foot high boundary wall of The Knoll directly facing its fourteen windows and French doors."

GPS Architects commented: "The suggestion that the resubmission of the planning application is a delay tactic' is inaccurate and ill-informed. We confirm that, following discussions with the planning department, a revised application for amendments to the facade of the building has been submitted to Richmond Council within their requested time frame and this is being processed in the normal way."

A spokesman for the council confirmed that a second retrospective planning application had been submitted to retain the house as built with a listed building application to retain alterations to a listed wall.

He added: "The council regards any unauthorised development as a serious matter and this latest application will continue to be carefully studied before any decisions are made, including whether to take enforcement action."