PIPE dreams to turn former public toilets into a holiday home on Cleeve Hill have left a woman fighting an 18-month battle with planning officers.
Louise Houston wanted to turn the lavatories into a place to stay when she visited her five children and four grandchildren living in Cheltenham and Winchcombe.
After buying the toilets from Tewkesbury Borough Council in April 2011 for £35,000, she was told by planners there should be no problems with changing it into a home.
Two planning applications have been turned down and she is waiting anxiously on the outcome of a third.
Louise, who grew up in Cheltenham before moving to Port Isaac in Cornwall, said: "It is disingenuous for them to have sold it at a public auction then not let the planning application go through.
"I have worked with the council and we have tried everything. I just want a place to stay when I visit my children and grandchildren.
"Each year that goes by, the place is left to waste and rot."
Objections have been raised in the past by Southam parish council and The Open Space Society, insisting the proposals would create an adverse visual impact.
Louise's architect, Danny Sullivan, from Design For Living, said he did not understand the council's decisions.
"We have worked closely with the planners to try and make it work, but we have gone away disappointed time and time again," he said.
"We were told it would affect the rural landscape in the area, but it is not open grounds."
Tewkesbury Borough Council's development control manager Paul Skelton said: "The site is in a very prominent location on Cleeve Hill so it is important any works to the building respect the high quality setting in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
"The previous application was refused as we did not feel the necessary standard of design had been achieved.
"We are in the process of assessing the current proposal."
