The father of a deaf boy has claimed his son could be put in danger from traffic after he was told he could not park off-street because the council wanted to protect a grass verge.

Matt Beadell, 39, said he was concerned that as “typically adventurous” two-year-old Noah gets older he would not hear cars outside their home in Falcon Road, Hampton.

The father-of-three asked Richmond Council if it could lower the curb so Noah, who attends the Tadpoles Nursery School, in Carlisle Park, would be able to get out of their car safely on a drive next to their house.

But the authority rejected his planning application because it did not want to remove part of a grass verge on the pavement.

Councillor Clare Head, cabinet member for traffic at Richmond Council, said she sympathised with Mr Beadell and his wife Sarah but the council dealt with their application “rigorously and fairly”.

Mr Beadell, an IT sales mananger, said he agreed the authority should protect green spaces but the 1.4m wide grass patch outside his home was “a combination of scruffy grass, weeds and bare patches of earth”.

He said: “I absolutely support the council’s policy, you can’t have something approved if a tree needs cutting down, but I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t a bit more leniency or compassion on the part of the council.

“My long-term future is in Hampton in this house and it would be nice not to have to worry every time we have to load and unload the car with Noah, because he is a typically adventurous little boy.

“I would rather know that his adventurous nature will not put him into danger.”

Hampton Councillor Gareth Roberts said: “I'm convinced that this is simply bureaucracy standing in the way of a sensible decision.”

The council rejected Mr Beadell’s application in July last year.

He took the case to Local Government Ombudsman who ruled she could not criticise the authority’s decision unless it had made an administrative mistake, although she acknowledged it granted a neighbour’s identical planning application “in error” in 2008.

Coun Head said the council did not plan to reverse its decision.

She said: “When considering applications such as this one, we need to think about their impact on the wider area and how other parts of a street could be affected.”