A ROW over the colour of a little shop in Innerleithen will be resolved next week.

Martha Gibson, who leases the outlet at 1 Leithen Road, had the frontage painted purple without realising she required planning consent from Scottish Borders Council to do so.

Permission is needed because the building lies within the town’s Conservation Area. 

But when she applied for retrospective consent back in March, the owner of the premises next door objected.

Aneela McKenna from Clovenfords claimed the colour was “not sympathetic to the heritage of the property or surrounding historical properties in the Conservation Area”.

Asked for its thoughts, Innerleithen Community Council was unable to reach a consensus, with some members believing the paint job was “a significant retrograde step” while others felt a purple shop was better than an empty shop and it was unreasonable to ask Mrs Gibson to go to the expense of repainting it.

That was a view shared by Edinburgh antiques dealer John Belford who owns the shop and leases it to Mrs Gibson.

In his submission to SBC, Mr Belford said many of his friends in the antique trade had remarked how “authentic” the shop now looked.

“I personally like it very much,” he stated, adding: “It was one of the original exterior colour schemes of many years ago when purples, browns and greens were traditional Victoriana favourites of the day.”

But using delegated powers, SBC planning officer John Hiscox, rejected the retrospective bid.

He determined that the chosen colour breached local planning policies because of its “poor relationship” with neighbouring buildings.

“In this case, the colour is considered to give rise to a jarring juxtaposition between tones…conflicting with the softer, neutral tones of the buildings it relates to,” said Mr Hiscox.

“It is incongruous in the wider setting of the Conservation Area because the shop is prominent and subject to a focused view looking east along High Street.

“It is therefore not an appropriate colour.”

Faced with the prospect of being forced to repaint the shop – which sells everything from toys and gifts to wool, pet food and cleaning materials – Mrs Gibson appealed the decision.

And on Monday, the nine councillors who make up SBC’s local review body will meet at Newtown to consider her appeal and make a binding decision.