The council’s planning chief got “special treatment” when she consulted her department’s director about a restriction on her own house, it has been claimed.

Councillor Virginia Morris, cabinet member for environment and planning at Richmond Council, told the authority’s environment director Paul Chadwick she did not want to erect 1.7m side screens on her balcony.

But a council committee ruled last month she would need to put them up after neighbours in Buckingham Road, Hampton, raised concerns about their privacy.

Coun Morris met Mr Chadwick and Robert Angus, the authority’s development control manager, on March 2 who told her it was “technically possible” to avoid the restriction because an earlier meeting had not mentioned it.

Mr Chadwick, in a report to the planning committee about their discussions last week, asked councillors to “understand that the concerns raised by Coun Morris as applicant have been dealt with as swiftly and at such a senior level as they have been, precisely because of her role on the planning committee and as a cabinet member”.

Councillor Stephen Knight, leader of Richmond’s Liberal Democrats, said: “The concern is that this could well be seen as inappropriate special treatment being given to a councillor.

“She has had access to meetings with the director of environment and planning which ordinary applicants would not be afforded.”

Coun Morris expressed her “concerns” in a telephone conversation with Mr Chadwick on February 28 this year.

The Conservative councillor met him and Mr Angus two days later to say she did not want the side screens and asked for advice.

She was granted permission for a balcony without side screens on January 21, 2010, but objectors contacted the council and the planning committee ruled on February 17 this year that she did, in fact, need to put them up.

Coun Morris said: “I am happy that proper procedures have been taken when dealing with my planning application.

“The report by the director of the environment, which is openly available to the public to view, has given transparency to the system, so retaining the integrity of the planning process and the council.”

A spokesman for Richmond Council said the planning committee’s request for screens last month did not overrule its earlier ruling.

He said: “The advice given to Coun Morris was the same as would be given to any other member of the public in these circumstances.”