A PLANNING inspector was today trying to decide whether a householder should reduce the height of his home near York.

A lengthy wrangle over York House - a very large new property in Upper Poppleton's conservation area - was coming to a climax at a public inquiry.

Several dozen villagers were at the village community centre to hear an appeal by home owner Simon Morgan against City of York's Council's refusal of retrospective planning permission.

The inquiry heard that the council had granted permission in 1997 for a house with a roof ridge height of 9.7 metres. But the property had been build to a height of 11.3 metres from ground level.

Following representation from villagers, a retrospective application for the extra height was turned down by councillors last year, against the advice of planning officers.

Richard Drabble QC, representing Mr Morgan, said today he would resist the temptation to go into the history of the development which had led to the breaching of the original planning permission, but it was regretted by Mr Morgan.

He said the issue was whether the extra-high roof had caused material harm and the unanimous view of planning officers had been that it did not.

He said an extension to the property - with a roof ridge height of 10.7 metres - had been granted retrospective permission on appeal by an inspector in 1999.

He said it would be a nonsense for the roof of the main property to be lower than the extension roof.

Bradley Stankler, consultant town planner, said he did not believe the higher roof ridge on York House harmed the village conservation area or the visual quality of the adjoining green belts.

"It's an attractive building in its own right," he said.

"It's a very distinctive property."

He said that if the roof had to be reduced in height, there would be a number of possible implications, including a reduction in the slope and pitch of the roof with implications for the accommodation inside the roof and bedrooms in the floor below.

He said it appeared that the increase in the roof height had resulted from an increase in floor to ceiling heights of the rooms below.

The inquiry continues.