A homeowner is furious after officials allowed his neighbours to keep a 10-foot-tall home office he says blocks the sun in his garden.

The Budnar-Hunts increased the height of their garage by almost 16 inches and added a skylight without seeking planning consent.

They said the extra head height would provide a much-needed office space to work from home despite having a four-bedroom detached property.

 But next-door neighbour Gary Burgess was not happy with the work.

The retired finance manager said he spent a lot of money getting his north-facing back garden perfect and now the 10ft-tall building blocks the limited sunlight it gets.

Mr Burgess, 62, claimed his neighbours were underhanded in the way they went about things, saying they did not tell him they planned to make the building taller and carried out the work while he was out of the country.

The local council received complaints that the work went beyond permitted development and they told the Budnar-Hunts they had to apply for retrospective planning permission to keep it.

A planning official carried out a site visit to the property in Poole, Dorset, and has now granted the couple permission.

In her findings, planning officer Celyn Hanks said any shading of Mr Burgess's property was 'limited to the late evening hours' and was 'not materially greater than the existing situation'.

The report said: 'Although it is evident that it leads to some shading, it is restricted to the rear part of the garden immediately adjacent to the boundary with the application site. As such, it does not result in unacceptable harm to the amenities of the occupants.

'It is considered that the outbuilding has no overbearing impact on the neighbour. On balance, while there is a degree of harm arising from the scheme, this is limited primarily to some overshadowing of the garden area and is not sufficient to warrant refusal of planning permission.'

But a fuming Mr Burgess, who spent 40 years working for cruise line Cunard, said Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council had let his neighbours get away with it.

He said: 'I can't argue against what's allowed under permitted development, but they have built up on that and the council have let them get away with it. 

'It's sending the message you can just do whatever you want and they pass it. I've got an extension but I went about it the right way. It's very back-handed. 

'The council said it would only affect me in the evening but the garden faces north so we only get the sunshine in the summer and it's going to be even less now because of the height of this garage.

'They did all this when I was out of the country and I'm just so incensed. I've also got a horrible feeling they came into my garden to do the work - the basket hooks were all kicked off my wall.

'He said they told me about it but all they said was they were going to redo the roof because it was in disrepair, they never once mentioned building up.

'All I was asking was that they bring the height down to the allowed height. Why have they allowed it to go over three metres considering the family did it without any planning or consultation with the council?

'It's very frustrating. What's the point of having the rules? I'm not at all happy and now I'm going to be stuck with this. I have been in the house for 33 years and I like things to be nice.

'I spent a fortune on my back garden and put the seating area where the sun comes through, now I've got to live next door to them when they have created this problem.'