Sarah Beeny’s plans to renovate a Nineteen Seventies farmhouse have sparked a long-running planning row, with locals voicing sturdy opposition to her £3m ‘mini-Downton Abbey’
A number of locals have objected to Sarah’s plans (Picture: Nicky Johnston)
Property skilled Sarah Beeny, who shot to fame within the early 2000s with Channel 4’s Property Ladder, has discovered herself embroiled in a prolonged planning permission dispute surrounding her new “mini-Downtown Abbey” residence in Somerset. Sarah and her husband Graham Swift bought a Nineteen Seventies farmhouse set inside a beneficiant plot of land in Stoney Stoke in 2018, submitting proposals to undertake an entire renovation of the property. Opposition from native residents emerged virtually instantly.
One neighbour labelled Sarah’s proposals for the positioning “irresponsible and downright harmful” whereas one other complained they had been “extraordinarily silly.” Preliminary objections to the event centred on a monitor connecting the property to a street that has gained a infamous status for visitors accidents.
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One native, Paul Williams, informed the Somerset County Gazette: “Having lived right here for 35 years and in that point appear dozens of accidents on this infamous stretch of street, a number of of which have been via my hedge. The concept of including an additional entrance/exit on this zone appears irresponsible and downright harmful.”
Residents’ frustrations intensified when Sarah reportedly selected to increase a portion of the £3m property, regardless of having initially deliberate to demolish it totally. Native resident Kevin Flint informed the Day by day Mail: ‘It is created lots of unhealthy feeling within the village.'”
After being informed to tear down the ‘mini-Downtown Abbey’ at her Somerset property, Sarah has submitted (Picture: Nicky Johnston)
The property plans – chronicled in her Channel 4 present Sarah Beeny’s New Life within the Nation – have modified since they had been initially submitted to the council.
Mr Flint added: “She was given permission to construct the brand new home on situation she knocked down the outdated one which she prolonged and refurbished, it is simply not on.
“She thinks she will transfer down right here and trip roughshod over everyone but it surely’s not going to occur.”
Following Sarah’s resolution to increase relatively than demolish the unique farmhouse, her planning consultants Avalon Planning and Heritage lodged a retrospective planning utility with Somerset Council.
Graham and Sarah moved to Somerset in 2018 (Picture: Nicky Johnston)
That utility was rejected, and prolonged negotiations have did not resolve the matter. Avalon Planning and Heritage preserve that whereas they don’t seem to be complying with the initially permitted plans, Sarah and Graham’s revised proposals stay throughout the spirit of the laws.
As separate planning functions known as for six new buildings to be constructed on the land, substituting one of many proposed new builds for the unique farmhouse successfully retains the general growth throughout the permitted pointers.
In addition they secured approval to transform 5 agricultural buildings into new dwellings — a consent that has been renewed till March 2029 owing to the continued planning disputes.
Sarah’s planners Avalon Planning and Heritage are contending within the new utility that by changing solely 4 — relatively than 5 — barns, whereas retaining each the unique farmhouse and the newly constructed one, the overall variety of dwellings nonetheless quantities to 6.
Sarah shot to fame with Property Ladder (Picture: Getty Pictures)
They additional famous that, resulting from bats nesting throughout the roof of the farmhouse, any demolition would represent a breach of the strictly-enforced Conservation of Habitats and Species Laws 2017.
In an announcement, they stated: “The present planning obligations requiring the wholesale demolition of the farmhouse would outcome within the full destruction of the Serotine bat roost which is considerably extra impactful than the attraction proposals.”
In an identical vein, an ecological case has been made for preserving the farmhouse, with claims that retaining the prevailing constructing would “provide a big complete life carbon financial savings of as much as 36 per cent” in comparison with knocking it down.
Specific.co.uk has reached out to representatives for Ms Beeny for remark.
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