A High Wycombe mosque could be forced to tear down a new wall it built after councillors complained the area has been left a “complete mess”.

Micklefield Mosque, which used to be the Seventh Day Adventist church on Centre Approach, has made changes to the layout of its car park, bringing the level of the car park up and building a retaining wall.

Although most of the work has already been completed, councillors on Wycombe District Council’s planning committee considered the plans on Wednesday night – but they agreed to refuse permission for the work after complaints were made about a loss of privacy for The Vicarage, which backs onto the car park.

Before the car park work was carried out, the surface was sloping, with hedges at the bottom shielding the nearby home from view.

Cllr Clive Harriss said the building work that has now been carried out has created a “mess” in the area and said the work needs to be undone.

He said: “You have got concrete slurry which has been poured in at the back and a 1.2m fence at the back will create an open dustbin. Anyone that wants to litter will just throw it over the fence. There would be a much greater impact on the building below.

“If I were living in the house below I would be quite terrified about the work that has gone ahead.

“Anywhere you get a gathering of people, whether a wedding, a sporting event or worshipping, they come into the car park and can’t finish talking. You have to drag your friends away sometimes and they look around.

“The way this has been built, it has become extremely oppressive to the building below it. It is a community building and it will have a lot of people who will stand around and talk.

“What has been done has left a complete mess and it needs to be taken back to the drawing board.”

Cllr Tony Lee also criticised the workmanship, adding: “There are drainage issues, the quality of the work doesn’t look very good, you have got rubbish in the trench there. We need to say we’re not accepting this as it is.”

Planning officer at Wycombe District Council, Alastair Nicholson, said the fence needs to be set back because if you walk up close to it, you can see into the residential garden below.

He said: “The reason that is occurring now and it wasn’t occurring before is that a building operation has been undertaken, a retaining wall has been built and the level of the land has been built up so you can now overlook when you previously couldn’t.”

Although alternate plans, suggesting a fence could be built further away from the boundary, came in just before the planning committee met, councillors refused the plans – to the anger of members of the public in the audience, who ripped their meeting agendas up in disgust.