DEVELOPERS knocked a house down without permission.

The home in Falmer Avenue, Saltdean, was bulldozed to provide access to a 32-home development behind it in May 2018.

But it has now emerged that conditions attached to the permission to knock down the £750,000 house were breached.

Hyde Housing was told not to start before it had permission from Brighton and Hove City Council’s planning department.

But the developers bulldozed the two-storey four bedroom property anyway.

Furious residents demanded the home be rebuilt upon hearing about the blunder.

But the council said it was “unreasonable to require the house to be rebuilt only to be demolished again”.

Today Hyde Housing, which is developing the land behind the demolished house, is asking the council to allow it to make a number of changes to its planning permission.

The developer said the original layout was designed by architects without input from a civil engineer, resulting in practical problems with the site.

Councillor Mary Mears, representative for the area, said the changes were “major” and the application should be debated by the planning committee.

She said: “Residents are upset with the way they have been treated and many living locally are following this case. The reason the developers are seeking all of these variations is because what they had permission for doesn’t work. I do not understand why they didn’t have the structural engineers working in the beginning.”

Hyde’s agent Westridge Construction said steep gradients on the site meant some areas of planning need to be revised. The planning committee has been advised to allow the revised scheme.

But Cllr Mears has concerns the new proposals will cause extra traffic and make the area unsafe for children.

She said trees were set to be cut down and she was also worried crossing the road would become difficult for elderly and disabled residents.

“There is also an issue around how close they are to existing properties,” she said. The homes are being built on land which was once in the national park.

More than 4,000 people signed a petition against the original application which went before the committee four years ago.

Protests were held at Brighton Town Hall before a three-day inquiry by a planning inspector backed the scheme.

Hyde Housing was contacted for comment.