Bill Batley has nearly finished his shopping arcade on the former Hewitts site in King Street.

But Macclesfield borough planners have told him that his terracotta roof tiles at the back of the building have got to go.

"We thought we'd done everything correctly but they want us to take the tiles off and put blue slates on instead," said Mr Batley yesterday (Tuesday).

Mr Batley, a Knutsford resident for 25 years, said officers had been told of his intention to roof the back of his building in terracotta THREE YEARS ago.

"Now they seem to have decided that they want a different material," he said.

He said the building had been designed to blend in with Richard Harding Watt's architecture near the Moor - and argued that changing the roof would spoil it.

"The building has been designed to have that Mediterranean concept," he said.

"The tiles match the flats near Moorside and the Watt buildings along that side of town."

But planners want the roof to be made of blue slates - like the King Street front of the building - and have served Mr Batley with an enforcement notice.

"We've been arguing about it for months," said Mr Batley.

His firm, TCP Investments, are now re-applying for permission and have vowed to appeal against planners' decision if their bid fails.

Building work on the site at the station end of King Street will carry on as normal while the plans are discussed by council officers.

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