LITTLE Millie Landon is a four-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer who cannot prevent herself from falling over. As a result, she needs somewhere safe to play.

And her parents believed they had ensured just that when they built her a rooftop garden on top of the garage behind their home and fish and chip shop in East Lancashire.

They spent £1,500 on creating the play area which boasts a bench, chairs, flower tubs and a palm-tree mural. It was a haven designed to keep Millie away from the busy main road nearby and a place where her father, Bob, and his wife, Linda, knew she would be safe while they were occupied in their shop in Oswaldtwistle's Catlow Hall Street. Then, along came officialdom -- with concerns other than the child's welfare and happiness.

The Landons should have applied for planning permission, they said. But, four months ago, when they did, Hyndburn councillors told them to rip down the garden in any case -- because neighbours said it invaded their privacy.

Now, the family have been told for a second time that Millie's garden must go -- even though 700 people, including Hyndburn's MP, Greg Pope, signed a petition saying it should stay. And consent was still refused despite Mr Landon raising the garden's fence by 21 inches to six feet in height, making it impossible, he says, for him to see into anyone's garden.

As for the objectors, they numbered just two. One has since died and the other, Mr Landon claims, only uses her house as a postal address.

It would seem that if any regulations are being breached at all, they are most minor. And are there any so rigid that a little child's safety and enjoyment must come second to them. Seven hundred people and their representative disagree with the unbending planning committee at the town hall -- as, surely, would everyone else in East Lancashire with common sense and compassion.

For this is not all about the height of a fence or the alleged obtrusiveness of the garden it surrounds. It is about a young and unfortunate human being -- whose needs should come first.