A disabled woman who suffers with a debilitating condition says she feels like a “prisoner in her own home” after council planners refused a string of proposals to create a driveway so she can leave the house.

Pam Bahd, who lives in Altona Road in Loudwater, said she has been left feeling depressed and hopeless after Wycombe District Council refused plans that would help her leave the house.

Mrs Bahd and her husband Harbinder have had a number of different proposals – and appeals – rejected to build a driveway on their property.

Virtually housebound due to severe fibromyalgia, Mrs Bahd cannot walk unaided and says getting out of her house is a struggle because of their steep front garden – and although all of their neighbours have a driveway, they have not been allowed to create one.

She feels like she is being forced to leave the home she has lived in for 16 years because council planners have been unreasonable.

Plans to create a driveway in their back garden, which would mean opening up an access point on Derehams Lane, were rejected amid safety fears.

And fresh plans, submitted in January, for engineering works to form a front disabled parking bay and a lift up to the house were also thrown out because they would not fit in with the landscape – and there were concerns about the effect on a row of trees in the garden.

A tearful Mrs Bahd said: “I can’t do anything on my own – it is an effort to go out. Why should I have to leave the home I love? My neighbours are so friendly, I love my street. None of my neighbours have any problems with us having a driveway.

“Leaving the house and getting down the steep hill is just draining. It would make my life so much easier if the car could be parked closer to the house.

“What I have at the moment – it is not a life at all. Nobody wants a rickety old lift out the front – it will take away the beauty of the area. A driveway out the back would be ideal because then I could get my wheelchair out.

“Since our appeal on the latest plans were rejected, I haven’t been able to sleep. It feels like bullying and discrimination because I am disabled.”

Mr Bahd said the way they have been treated is an “injustice”.

A spokesman for Wycombe District Council said: “The council has great sympathy for Mrs Bahd’s situation. It is clear from the history of refused planning applications that the property cannot easily be developed as Mr and Mrs Bahd would ideally wish.

“Planning permission runs with the land rather than the individual. As a Local Planning Authority the council must consider all planning applications in accordance with current legislation, current planning policy and the circumstances of the proposal.

“In the case of the most recent planning application this was found to be unacceptable when judged against current Local Plan policy and the application was refused.

“Mr Bahd then lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate. An independent inspector reviewed the proposal and visited the property. He concluded that the council decision was correct and dismissed the appeal.”