HUNDREDS of petitioners who called on Hillingdon Council to appeal a decision to allow a back garden development in South Ruislip have now been forced to turn to their MP for help.

In August last year the council refused an application to build two semi-detached houses on the back gardens of 10 and 12 Torcross Road, South Ruislip.

However, the developers, Daniel Family Homes, decided to appeal the decision and in January this year the planning inspectorate decided to allow the appeal.

Residents of the area then handed a 239-signature petition into the council last month asking them to mount a legal challenge.

A petition hearing was heard last Wednesday (15) and the cabinet member for planning and transportation, Councillor Keith Burrows, decided there were no grounds for a legal challenge. However, he is going to write to the planning inspectorate to highlight the concerns of the residents.

The lead petitioner, Steve Graham, of Bideford Road, said: "The petitioners don't accept the council's decision and we don't feel the council has defended its own planning policy properly.

"Everyone agrees that the decision to allow the back garden development is fundamentally wrong on many levels.

"We feel, unfortunately, that this will now open the flood gates to lots of other developments, not just in Hillingdon, but in London as well."

Cavendish councillor, Michael White, said: "The council can't take this any further because it requires a change in the law and this is the problem.

"The only way to challenge it is by getting the MP involved because we have exhausted all the avenues open to us.

"There needs to be a change in the law so back gardens are given green belt status."

The petitioners have now been in contact with Nick Hurd to ask him to write to the planning inspectorate and the Secretary of State on their behalf because they feel it is their only option.

Mr Hurd said: "I am disappointed by the council's decision not to issue a legal challenge. The view of the local community appears to count for nothing and that must be wrong.

"I am writing to both the Secretary of State and the head of the planning inspectorate to ask for an exceptional review."