'My pergola was reported twice' – homeowner was ordered to take down her pergola after the council called it an 'intrusive feature'

If you’re considering adding a pergola to your garden, you might want to double-check the planning permission rules in your local area. Even if you know the rules, it can be easy to be caught out, as a content creator in Nottingham found out when the council ordered her to take down her pergola.

Belle Rogers from Nottingham, known as @bydesignermum on TikTok and Instagram, has gone viral after revealing that the council has ordered her to take down the wooden pergola in the garden at the back of her house, where she’s lived for 11 years, following an anonymous complaint.

The content creator originally built the pergola in 2021 during COVID as the finishing touch to her patio ideas. This little sanctuary included a stylish dip tank and seating area filled with plants and festoon lights. Typically, pergolas fall under permitted development, meaning you don’t need to apply for planning permission if your structure meets certain criteria. In the case of a pergola, it must cover less than 50% of the garden, and it is below 2.5 metres high (if it's within 2 metres of a neighbour's fence). However, the rules differ if you’re dealing with a listed building or live in a conservation area, where restrictions are tighter.

Belle’s beautiful home is a Grade II listed home in a conservation area. When speaking to Ideal Home, Belle admits that despite being pros at renovating older properties, it didn’t occur to either her or her partner to apply for planning permission for the pergola because it wasn’t a permanent enclosed structure.

‘This is our 14th renovation in 10 years, we’ve always renovated older things - an old chapel, old Georgian houses, an old bank - so we’re pretty much always applying for planning. Everything in this house we’ve applied for planning for: the barn conversion, the conservatory round the back. So we do follow the guidance, but I didn’t think that a wooden pergola outside that wasn’t permanent would need planning permission.’

The pergola was first reported in 2022 for being a permanent structure that was attached to the property. To comply with the council guidelines, Belle took the pergola down.

‘I think they were concerned about the attachment to the actual building, which I do actually understand,’ says Belle. ‘I asked what if we put it on wheels, what if it was movable? And they said, well, if it's movable, then that's fine.’

'I have to admit, at first, I was absolutely gutted when the first, you know, when I had to take down the first one; I left it for a year,' she explains.

In 2025 she decided to take on the challenge of building a moveable pergola and created a new freestanding wooden covering on wheels that was detached from the house.

However, the pergola was reported again. This time the council said that the pergola would need to be taken down by the end of August (2026). In emails seen by Ideal Home, the main reason given for the decision was the similarity between the original pergola and the new one built on wheels, along with maintained objections from the council's conservation officers that it introduced an ‘intrusive feature’.

When approached for a comment on the ruling, Councillor Andy Freeman, Chair of Planning Committee at Newark and Sherwood District Council, said: 'as with any listed building, homeowners must follow specific rules and regulations, and planning permission is often required for structures of this kind.

'This is a protected Grade II listed building, and planning permission was not obtained for the work undertaken. Although the structure has now been placed on wheels, this has not removed the harmful impact identified by the Council’s Conservation professionals. The owner has therefore been asked to remove the structure.'

It’s not the outcome Belle hoped for. She told Ideal Home that she’s confused about why the pergola has been targeted, explaining that it’s hidden around the back of the house and is one of several other garden structures, including a greenhouse and a shepherd’s hut built under permitted development. However, these other structures have drawn no complaints or action from the council.

But despite her disappointment, she has maintained a sunny outlook. She plans to find a way to reuse the pergola (watch this space!) She is also already thinking of ways to replace the structure with parasol trees or something similar to create a natural covering over the patio that the council will approve. 'I emailed the council, and in terms of planting, there are no planning restrictions on what you plant, where it goes, or the height it eventually grows to,' she explains of her new idea.

Following the experience, Belle’s advice for other homeowners living in a listed building or a conservation area is to always check regulations if they’re hoping to build a pergola. ‘The first thing you need to do is look at what’s allowed. Contact the local council because they are pretty good at responding, and find out what the rules are around non-permanent and permanent structures in your garden.’