A FATHER and son who built a dry stone cairn to celebrate the Millennium without realising they needed planning permission are "over the moon" that planners have supported their handiwork, reports Rachel Kitchen.

Electrician and self-taught dry stone waller Paul Allen was shocked to discover the eight-feet-high unfinished cairn on pasture land he owns at Cote Wold Allotment, Garsdale Common, required planning consent.

To the delight of Paul and his father Harry, who live in Kendal, planners approved retrospective plans this week after reading letters of support from locals and holiday-makers from as far afield as Wiltshire and Buckinghamshire.

"We are over the moon," Harry Allen told the Gazette.

"It was absolutely brilliant, not one abstention or vote against it."

Speaking at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority's planning committee meeting, he said he and his son were sorry for falling foul of planning regulations.

"Having been born in Grisedale my earliest memories are of seeing cairns from Baugh Fell - whether they could be seen, and how clearly, was used to judge the prevailing weather," he recalled.

The dry stone cairn, embellished with a 'smoot' oven cavity and two letter Ms made from concrete paving slabs to represent the year 2000 in Roman numerals, came to the attention of planners after two people complained.

Retrospective plans submitted by the father and son attracted 14 letters of support, and no letters of objection, said deputy head of planning Andrew McCullagh.

"I can only imagine we are reasonably well thought of up there, plus the fact it's a very, very noticeable landmark," said Mr Allen.

In his report, Mr McCullagh had recommended the cairn be refused unless it was made much shorter, but Mr Allen said it would then have resembled "a demented igloo".

Planners accepted his offer to reduce the intended height to ten feet.

The father and son now hope to complete the cairn in time for the Golden Jubilee.

Mr McCullagh told the Gazette: " They are a very genuine couple of blokes.

It was definitely a genuine misunderstanding of the system, I'm convinced of that.

They just didn't appreciate planning permission applied."