A pregnant woman burst into tears of relief when councillors reversed a catastrophic planning error the evening before she was due to give birth.

Marianela Vermeer phoned Kingston Council’s contact centre in May to ask whether her house was in a conservation area and needed planning permission for a roof extension.

The council officer mistakenly thought her house was in Grange Road, Chessington, not Grange Road, Kingston, and said no permission was needed.

Acting on that assurance, she and husband Jan signed a £35,000 contract and started work on a rear dormer extension with a Juliette balcony.

However, planning inspectors halted work halfway through when the mistake was discovered, leaving the family with a hole in their roof and two months of leaks and damp.

Mr Vermeer said: “We have been living in a house not fit for habitation for two months and it’s been extremely stressful, resulting in a lack of sleep, high blood pressure on my part, and restlessness for her.

“You feel as a resident and a small person up against a large Government machine completely helpless because you have nowhere to turn.”

The council admitted it was at fault, but officials opposed an application to approve the work because it was out of character with the Fairfield/Knights Park conservation area.

However, councillors at the Kingston town planning sub-committee on Wednesday, July 20, said the couple should be allowed to complete the work because the council was at fault.

Councillor Chrissie Hitchcock said: “While I’m not keen on giving planning permission for retrospective applications, I feel this is an exception because of the misleading information that was given.”

Mr Vermeer said: “Chrissie was probably the only person who saw a small family and very pregnant person were being battered around by jobsworths not seeing the impact on us.

We would have been lost without her.

“The lesson I have learned is not to act on verbal information from the council, but to get it in writing.”

Councillor Vicki Harris, chairwoman of the development control committee, said: “As far as I’m concerned that’s exactly the contact centre’s role – to deal with issues there and then and if not get back to the resident.

“It clearly is an issue for the contact centre to deal with and resolve – how they train and manage their staff.”