Locals have been left bemused after a new-build flat balcony was built around a lamppost.
Construction began on the new build, four-storey block of flats in Gillingham, Kent, in 2022 and developers have recently added balconies to the homes.
But workers failed to remove a nearby lamppost before building started – meaning one unlucky resident could have a lamppost on his balcony.
The bizarre construction has left locals baffled, with some joking that the oddity will at least mean the future flat owner won’t have to pay to keep his balcony lit.
Others chuckled that whoever inhabits the flat in the future will have an easy escape-route in the case of a fire.
Gillingham resident Barry Knight went to visit the site at Jeffrey Street on Wednesday after seeing a picture on social media.
He said: ‘It’s funny but it shouldn’t be. I wouldn’t want to live there.’
Afaad Ltd, the site’s developer, have defended the balcony though, saying that constructing it around the lamppost was the only way they could meet deadlines.
A spokesman said: ‘It’s a work in progress, we are still doing the installation.
‘We’ve still got a few months to go so this is not the complete product.
‘It was never intended to be like that but because it’s council property and you have to wait for permission. So we can’t touch it.’
The developer plans to remove the lamppost in the future and fill in the balcony’s gaps. It is liaising with the local council to do so.
The site of the flats was previously a pub named the Dog and Gun.
Plans to convert the boozer into a block of flats were given the greenlight by Medway Council in 2019, granting permission for the block to be 11m. In 2022, before construction began, that was increased to 13.1m.
The building also made headlines back in August, when an Arriva bus crashed into scaffolding surrounding the new-build prompting a large scale response from emergency services.
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