Pimlico resident sues Westminster council over Montenegro embassy's effect on her mental health

Mixed · 2Diana Simpson, 35, who lives with her parents on Cambridge Street in Pimlico, central London, is suing Westminster City Council over its handling of planning for Montenegro's new embassy, a converted five-bedroom family home next door. 1 2 Left · 1She is applying for judicial review and potential damages, arguing that when the embassy belatedly sought planning permission for its change of use and flagpole, the council failed to take into account the effect on her mental health. 1 Mixed · 2Simpson, whose family has lived on the street for over three decades and who is the daughter of a former US diplomat, receives disability benefits after diagnoses of clinical anxiety, long Covid and a functional neurological disorder. 1 2

Mixed · 2In her statement of grounds she says she often sleeps elsewhere in the house, for example fearing an intruder entering from the embassy on hearing a creak, though she acknowledges the possibility is very slim and the response mostly irrational; she has also questioned whether it "remains tenable" to keep living there. 1 2 Mixed · 2Her claim cites breaches of the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act, and alleges the council acted irrationally and ran a flawed consultation because it had a closed mind to objections once the Foreign Office gave permission. 1 2 Mixed · 2Westminster City Council denies the allegations, stating in its defence that "There is no plausible interference with the claimant's home or her private and family life", and is seeking summary judgment without a hearing; the case is before Justice Mould. 1 2

Mixed · 2Other residents had earlier objected to the embassy's flagpole and flag, calling them "tacky" and "gaudy" and out of keeping with the Grade II-listed late-Regency frontages designed by Thomas Cubitt, and were frustrated that the flagpole and plaque went up before any planning application. 1 2 Left · 1Montenegro's chargé d'affaires hosted drinks and canapés for neighbours, which partly placated critics; one resident remarked it would have been diplomatic to do so at the start. 1 Mixed · 2The Guardian places the case in a wider pattern of smaller countries moving embassies into converted homes in affluent London streets, citing Turkmenistan's embassy on Victoria Road, Kensington, which drew complaints, and North Korea's long-standing embassy in west London, whose neighbours say it causes no trouble. 1 2