Council rejects doctor's plea

By Mohammed Al A'ali
MANAMA Municipal Council yesterday threw out a doctor's appeal against an earlier decision to ban him from building an extra half-storey to his clinic. Councillors initially rejected his application at their general-secretariat meeting last week.
But it would not have been official unless presented to a full council meeting, which also rejected the request for a second time yesterday.
Dr Faisal Al Mahroos wanted to turn his four-and-a-half storey clinic into a five-storey clinic.
The council has already given him permission once before to increase the height to its existing four-and-a-half storeys, although zoning for the area limits buildings to three storeys.
Now councillors are also ordering the doctor to install opaque glass in his building after neighbours informed the council they were worried about strangers peering into their homes.
Council technical committee chairman Sadiq Rahma said there were complaints from nearby residents that the building, which is higher than others, was an invasion of their privacy.
"Before any expansion permission is given, the council needs to survey the area to ensure that neighbours are not being affected," he said.
He said that the Manama Municipality had been receiving complaints about the building, even before the doctor asked for an expansion.
"Anyway, we wouldn't have given the doctor permission, because his building is so high compared to others nearby and any increase would certainly be undesirable," said Mr Rahma.
He said that the committee had recommended that councillors order Dr Al Mahroos to out opaque glass in his building, so people could not look out over the neighbours' homes.
"We are the ones to blame in the first place, because we gave him an extra storey, after approving his request to add more rooms to his clinic," he said.
"We hope that he will respect the council's decision this time."
Dr Al Mahroos told the GDN last week that some of his neighbours approached him to complain about the building's height, but he told them to go the Manama Municipality.
He said that the municipality informed his neighbours that he had no problems and that his clinic was above any suspicion.
Dr Al Mahroos said he would take his fight to Municipalities and Agriculture Minister Ali Al Saleh.