A FATHER-of-three is jubilant after being told his children's climbing frame in their garden can stay - providing he plants some hedging to screen it from the roadside.

Jonathan Roberts, of Frome Brook Road, New Mills, Ledbury, was dumbfounded last month after being told he needed planning permission for the hand-built wooden structure in his garden.

But now, following a planning meeting at Herefordshire Council, he has given permission to keep the climbing frame used by his children - six-year-old William, four-year-old Evadne, and Edward, aged three - on the site for five years.

He said: "I'm obviously pleased about them granting me permission but I've been claiming it's a temporary structure from the outset and so this just seems to be them telling me what I've been saying all along."

Planners agreed to the retrospective application for the frame, erected about a year ago, on the condition Mr Roberts submit details of planting to be made around the structure and measures taken to restore the privacy to neighbours' gardens. Mr Roberts, who spent eight months building the climbing frame, said previously he was told by Herefordshire Council in August 2004 permission would not be required.

However, last month he was told permission must be sought for structures within five metres of another dwelling and 20 metres of a highway.

The authority had argued it did not consider the frame a temporary structure 'on the basis of the degree of permanence and the manner on which the frame is fixed to the ground.'

But Mr Roberts said: "I'm quite amazed about it all really and the fact I've had to pay £135 to go through the planning process when all along I've said it's a temporary structure."