Tuesday, 7 November 2006

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Charlotte Church's fortress gates upset her neighbours

Singer forgets to planning permission

Charlotte Church might have to pull down the 16ft electronic gates outside her £400,000 home.

The 20-year-old singer – who shares her detached house in Llandaff, Cardiff, with boyfriend Gavin Henson, 24 – put them up to protect her privacy from obsessive fans who've been known to lurk outside.

But she didn't realise she needed planning permission for the £5,000 steel barriers.

Charlotte will now have to back-date her application in the hope she will be allowed to keep them. Officials will visit the house later this week before making a decision.

'Charlotte wants to be able to close the electronic gates behind her and know she is safe,' a friend told the Daily Mirror.

'People can see in from the road so she had blocked off the entrance with the gates and a wooden fence above them.

'They didn't realise they needed planning permission.'