Winston Hills residents fight against backyard development
Neighbours want the eyesore next door to be demolished, but the owner said he is just trying to build his dream home.
Parramatta
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Neighbours are calling for legal action to be taken against the owner of a suspected two-storey granny flat.
Residents of streets surrounding Voltaire Rd in Winston Hills said constant stop work orders had been ignored and construction on the granny flat and demolition of an old weatherboard house continued.
Barbara Knox lives next door to the Voltaire Rd property and said the warnings had failed to deter the owner and builder, George Rodwas, from carrying out work.
“We believe it is terribly important for people to know and understand that construction like this is going on more than they know,” Mrs Knox said.
“The build is already a considerable way through … (He) has a complete disregard for any neighbours and authorities.
“The back yard has illegally been used as a commercial/industrial building work site as well as the storage location for an extremely large and unsightly green shipping container for at least one year.”
The first stop work order was made in May, a follow-up was made in June and a demolition, restoration and compliance order was issued last month, but the building continues.
Mr Rodwas said the problem was a fence line dispute that had been taken too far.
“The neighbour was upset about me putting things against the fence and they said ‘get this off my fence’ and since then they have been screaming,” Mr Rodwas said.
“I have been having a lot of problems with the neighbours and I’ve called the police because of abuse.”
Mr Rodwas claimed the granny flat and the garage were compliant and had passed council inspections.
“Every time council comes they say nothing is against regulation,” he said. “We pay all the fees, we get the approval and council checks all the things before it started.”
The granny flat according to Mr Rodwas is not two storeys but rather a single-storey building with extended storage space between the roof.
“I have lost a lot because of the stop work order,” he said.
“The materials are starting to deteriorate, everything is here ready to go, but I can’t do anything.”
Residents flagged that the development was seeing its fifth private certifier on the build. The current plans redraw the granny flat and the garage, retroactively making the plans compliant.
“This is a complete lie,” fellow neighbour Jodie Maestri said.
“(This is) nothing but an attempt to push through with a non-compliant, unsafe, appalling and unsightly structure.”
Parramatta Council has placed an order of demolition on the building, to no avail, forcing councillors to push for changes to the legislation and guidelines for private certifiers.
Independent councillor Lorraine Wearne called out the certifiers, likening them to “guns for hire”.
“State Government has created this monster,” Cr Wearne said. “It’s time the state stood up, man up and took back the power from the private certifiers who keep putting up junk.”
The council has voted to approach local state MPs to push for change to the guidelines and will send another stop work order on the property.