A woman faces a £40,000 bill after a council ordered her to rip out her new double-glazing.

Anne Sutton spent £25,000 installing double-glazing in her seven-bedroom home in Wyke Avenue, Worthing.

She says a planning officer at Worthing Borough Council told her she could go ahead with improvements to her home, which is in a conservation area.

However, weeks later she was told to apply for planning permission.

She said: "I was told verbal permission did not count for anything and unless I had planning permission in writing, I would need to apply retrospectively."

Her request was refused, leaving the mother-of-five no choice but to replace the windows with new ones deemed more in keeping with the area.

Mrs Sutton negotiated with the council to replace just 19 of the 45 windows, but the cost was still more than £15,000, leaving her with a total bill of £40,000.

Mrs Sutton said: "When we bought this place, it was in a dreadful state.

"We knew we would have to spend a lot of money on renovations. The windows were rotten and some were lodged permanently open.

"It was so cold we had to wear our coats all the time and the children went to bed wearing two sets of pyjamas, socks and a jumper."

Mrs Sutton said their budget had been taken up by the window fiasco and there was no money left to fix the leaking roof.

James Appleton, planning officer at Worthing Borough Council, said before Mrs Sutton bought the house it had been a residential home.

He said a condition had been imposed when consent for the conversion was granted, which prevented the owner from carrying out renovations without written planning permission.

He said: "A planning inspector upheld the council's enforcement notice in October 1999 and felt the windows were detrimental to the character of the street and the appearance of the building."