Residents celebrated a victory on Thursday night after Lambeth Council vowed to take to court a rail operator who built an “ugly and intrusive” structure behind their homes.

Sternhold Avenue residents say they have have been subjected to four years of “hell” after Southern Rail built a 300m long depot behind their homes containing 300 lights stretching 5m above the ground.

Residents say it is like a football stadium floodlight shining directly into their homes for 24 hours a day.

At the same time huge “monstrous” canopies lead directly up to dozens of their gardens, and a powerful smell of sewage from the depot intoxicates the air, they told a planning meeting last night.

They have been fighting Southern since the structure was built, with their situation mentioned in both houses of parliament.

Now the offending structures may now be ripped down after a council planning commitee voted to fight the rail company through the courts arguing the structures - built without planning permission - were unlawful.

Since the structures were built in 2005 Southern Railways have argued they are a permitted development because they benefit rail services.

Council officers believed it was not expedient to fight this argument in the courts - despite the harm to residents’ quality of life and the huge fall in the value of their homes - and had recommended councillors accept a range of mitigation changes to the structures residents described at the planning meeting as “insulting”.

Yet councillors sitting on the committee said they did not accept officers’ argument and voted to push forward with enforcement action.

They also questioned the quality of advice and action taken by officers during the residents’ four year fight.

Their decision was met with cheers and applause from some 20 residents who attended the meeting.

Resident Nicola Fenn, said she was delighted with the victory but there was still a long way to go before the structures were actually pulled down.

Taking the battle to a planning enquiry and on through the couts could cost the council up to £1m.

Southern Railways chose not to make official representations at the meeting, but before the committee gave their decision a representative said he hoped the mitigation changes would be accepted.

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