A yoga teacher is at war with her neighbors about an eight-man 'Leer' tent built in her backyard.
Sacha Latham, who lives in a luxury house by the sea in Brighton £ 350k, has been fighting with her municipality for almost two years to retain the large structure she first built in May 2024.
The 12ft Yurt, described as a 'temporary' build and accompanied by a composing toilet, terraces and fire pit, has been advertised online as a 'safe space, promoting health and well -being for everyone'.
The mother of four who described herself as 'a child at Christmas' when the building materials for the yurt first arrived for the first time, had hoped to learn 'healing circles', yoga classes and mini-retreats in the garden of her picturesque coastal house.
She said to MailOnline: 'I almost started the yurt building in the pandemia out of boredom. It started quite organic because I had the space in the garden to work with.
'I really didn't think about it and no planning, so it was only when I finished building it, that I realized that it was quite high.
'It was all about building the local community to really go and for community development. I would have liked to have started a traditional group or a kind of youth club. If I can earn some extra money in the process, then that is also a bonus, but that was not the goal at all. '
Yoga teacher Sacha Latham, who lives in a luxury house by the sea in Brighton £ 350k, has been fighting with her city council for almost two years to preserve the big 3.8 meter yurt (photo) that she was built for the first time in May 2024
The mother of Vier had hoped to give healing circles, yoga classes and mini-retreats in the garden of her picturesque coastal house
Mrs. Latham, who became visually handicapped two years ago because of a genetic disorder, also believes that the Yurt will offer an essential space for her to work from home and continue to promote her practice.
She said: 'It has been a very difficult few years. I just try to live my life the best I can and there are so few spaces for people to go in Brighton. '
Despite the insistence of Mrs. Latham that she had purely good intentions, different neighbors have since hit the construction because they are ugly, while they also express concern about the chance of considerable noise and unpleasant scents.
After the neighbors' complaints, Mrs. Latham was forced to submit a retrospective planning application to Brighton and Hove City Council in October 2024.
After this was refused, the yoga teacher, who has been practicing for almost 24 years and then appealed to the planning inspection.
Buren, who pushed back against the application, had criticized the 'misleading' plans described as an 'essential element of support for a disabled person', especially in view of the fact that it has been publicly advertised as a yoga space.
A neighbor described the Yurt and both 'inappropriate and antisocial' in the 'densely packed nature conservation region of Kemptown' given his proximity to neighboring properties, while another claimed that they had previously heard 'party music' from the building twice.
Mrs. Latham has described the majority of worries and criticism of Buren as 'ridiculously pathetic'
One neighbor described the Yurt as both 'inappropriate and antisocial' in the 'densely packed nature conservation area of Kemptown', while another claimed that they had heard 'party music'
In the meantime, another objection machine, who claims that Mrs. Latham has never contacted them about the proposed construction, that the Yurt has created a harmful sense of exaggeration and loss of prospects for residents, which has led to 'a significant loss of residential reinforcement'.
A neighboring resident even claimed that the fire pit in the center of the Yurt 'for both visitors to the Yurt and the adjacent properties is calling significant safety problems' because the structure that is built with flammable materials.
In a planning statement by Elena Rowland Architects it was claimed that Mrs. Latham's visual impairment meant that and the outbuildings is therefore of vital importance 'to retain its independence, both financially and physically' by enabling her to work from home.
The explanation added: 'The yurt causes no damage to the character and appearance of the site, because it cannot be seen from the road and it can be disguised with plants.
“Due to its nature and by definition, it is portable and cannot be considered as a permanent structure in the same category as bricks/block/wood/metal buildings with concrete foundations.”
The appeal was also certain that the Yurt is unable to 'cause an unacceptable level of noise' because it is completely covered with an insulating material, and that the structure is not infinited and yet used for work or private activities.
The appeal of Mrs. Latham was refused by the Council on 6 March because of 'the effect of the yurt on the character and appearance of the host home and its surroundings', in addition to the impact that the Yurt could have had on the living conditions for neighboring occupiers.
Shown: The plans for the Yurt that became an appeal on a professional permit by Brighton and Hove City Council on 6 March
The yoga teacher has described the majority of worries and criticism of the neighbors as 'ridiculously pathetic'.
She added: 'I only want to work within the law. Almost everyone here has a kind of construction because we all have large gardens.
“The only thing that was wrong with the structure was that it was too high. People just said these things because they wanted to oppose it.
“It is short -sighted really because you have to bring it down and build a different structure, create more noise, more people come in and out and more nuisance.”
Mrs. Latham insists that, despite the council's rejection, she 'keeps moving forward' and is planning to rebuild the Yurt at a lower height.
In the documents in which the rejection of the appeal was explained, planning officer Martin Andrews said that he 'considered' the building 'too large for this small residential garden, which expressed concern for the' effect of the use of the Yurt on the living conditions for neighboring occupiers, with special reference to noise and disruption '.
He added: 'The yurt is noticeably higher than the adjacent boundaries and therefore visibly from a number of surrounding gardens and the windows of properties. It certainly pulls the eye and clearly does not look into place.
“It is reasonable to assume that once completed, the Yurt will be a permanent function, because Rekwirant wants to use it from her house to give yoga classes to members of the public.”
Alderman Liz Loughran, chairman of the Planning Committee of Brighton & Hove City Council, said: 'This yurt is almost 4 meters long, with a diameter of more than 5 meters, and effectively fills the backyard of this house.
'Concerns were made about its impact on neighbors, the poor quality of materials used to construct it, the design, and that this would be a permanent structure, given the time it has already been and the indicated use for yoga classes.
“Retrospective permission was therefore refused – a decision that was subsequently confirmed by the independent planning inspector, which commented on his unsuitability for a small garden in a densely populated part of the city.”
