Pimlico neighbour sues Westminster council at the High Court, claiming the new Montenegro embassy next door harms her mental health

Diana Simpson, 35, a Stanford graduate who lives with her parents on Cambridge Street, Pimlico, is seeking judicial review and potential damages against Westminster City Council over its handling of the planning application that turned the neighbouring five-bedroom family home into Montenegro's UK embassy. Simpson, who receives disability benefits after being diagnosed with clinical anxiety, long Covid and a functional neurological disorder, says the council failed entirely to consider her mental wellbeing when approving the conversion. Her family has lived on the street for over three decades, and her father is a former American diplomat.

Simpson says the embassy has severely disrupted her sleep, forcing her to leave her bedroom in the night fearing intruders from next door.

Residents had already complained the Montenegrin red flag with gold border was 'gaudy' and the flagpole 'stuck out like a sore thumb' among Cambridge Street's Grade II-listed Regency homes.

The embassy's chargé d'affairs threw a drinks-and-canapés evening to smooth relations, but failed to win over Simpson.