A FATHER has been told to tear down a “tree house” he built for his seven-year-old daughter – because he failed to apply for planning permission.

Mat Waybourne, 42, spent ‘every spare evening and weekend’ building the two-storey shed on stilts for daughter Lilly.

He claims to have spent £800 on the 15ft tall wooden house – which boasts a balcony, windows and two ladders – but has been ordered to take it down or launch a £344 appeal.

Mr Waybourne, from Tupsley, Hereford – who shares custody of Lilly and her brother Joseph, 12 – is now begging council planners to drop the enforcement notice. According to planning guidelines, planning permission is not needed for an outbuilding measuring 13.1ft (four metres) or under. He said: “I’ve done it properly. It’s fully clad and has little perspex windows and you go up a little ladder and then there is a balustrade, and then another little ladder up to the tree house.

“When I showed it to Lilly she was chuffed to bits. She’s always up there, with her friends. It’s just something special for her to have when she comes here, and as soon as she comes around she’s straight up there.” Mr Waybourne believes the council took action after neighbours complained about the shed.

“The council said neighbours had complained but I spoke to all my neighbours and they had no problem with it,” he added.

“I am willing to block out the windows if that is an invasion of people’s privacy. But the council just sent the enforcement notice and ignored me.

‘I’m going to keep it for as long as I can. It is only temporary anyway and will come down when my kids are old enough.”

The controversial structure sits at the end of the garden belonging to Mat’s semi-detached home in a cul de sac off Whittern Way and was completed around seven months ago.

He said he built it because his daughter ‘always wanted a tree house’ and he wanted to make her dreams come true ‘before she gets too old’. Mr Waybourne received a call from the council complaining about the structure in February before receiving an enforcement notice from the authority’s senior litigator last month.

The letter said he had to comply with their demands and tear it down before May 17, or lodge an appeal – which would cost £344.

Mr Waybourne, who has his children visit every week, and every other weekend, said he is planning on lodging an appeal.

“I’ve told my daughter and she’s not very happy about it,” he said of the situation.

“She was really upset. She doesn’t really understand why. A spokeswoman for Herefordshire Council said: ‘The council has served an Enforcement Notice upon Mr Waybourne for a breach of planning regulations relating to a four-metre construction he has erected within two metres of his land boundary.

“He has a right to appeal against this. It is a matter for him whether he chooses to do so.”