Senior Naturist Protests

'I love topless sunbathing but new flats will ruin my privacy'
Portsmouth Today News (U.K.)
February 3, 2007

AN 85-YEAR-OLD woman campaigned to stop homes overlooking her garden – as it would put an end to her topless sunbathing.

Igene Lovejoy regularly strips off to catch a few rays of sun in her secluded back yard.But the great-grandmother will now need to cover up after permission was granted for three-storey houses and flats behind her bungalow.

Mrs Lovejoy said the sun helps her arthritis.'Why should I have to stop taking my clothes off to sunbathe because they want to build something so high with windows facing us?' she said.'Surely privacy on your own property is reason enough to make them change their plans.'I've always loved my garden. I need to strip off and I don't think people should be looking at me. There's no way I can carry on.'

Mrs Lovejoy, who has lived in Argyle Crescent, Fareham, for nearly 40 years, and her neighbours lost their battle when councillors gave the go-ahead for 43 homes off Gudge Heath Lane.

They were concerned the 28 houses and 15 flats were out of keeping with the area's bungalows.

Neighbour Frank Brewster, 72, said: 'There's no democracy whatsoever.

'We just have to put up with these 30ft three-storey monstrosities in our faces.

'We know it's going to be built on, but the council says it listens to residents and takes notice of what they want, but that's not the case.'

Planning committee chairman, Councillor Nick Walker, said the neighbours' long gardens separated them from the new buildings. And he said strict government guidelines meant the council would lose an appeal if it refused the application: 'It was felt the scheme could stand alone as a better use of land and not try to mimic what's there,' he said.'The taller buildings are further away from existing properties.'We would have been slaughtered at appeal because there were no real grounds other than a few people expressing their concerns about overlooking, which would not stand up.'

Source: http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=455&ArticleID=2020797