Neighbours of a "mega mansion" believed to be the biggest new-build home in Bath in 100 years are demanding it be torn down after it was built without planning permission. The massive mansion on the edge of the historic city has been built significantly higher than what was approved, according to residents.
Tavis Hamilton, 48, lives next door to the massive house and has spent 10 years battling developers. He is now one of more than 100 locals to object to the build, but locals fear the council has left it too late to carry out any meaningful enforcement. With the building now "topped out" and nearly complete, a retrospective application has now been submitted to "validate" the changes from the original plans.
Locals claim planning loopholes
Some locals claim it highlighted how multi-millionaires were able to abuse and find loopholes during the planning process. Bath and North-East Somerset Council declined to comment on the build and said enforcement action would only be "considered" after the fresh application has been determined.
Tavis said: "It is an absolute mega home - it will prob be worth more than £3million when it's finished. It is enormous and dwarfs all the cottages. You could fit around 24 of the other cottages into the footprint. It has been built for the last three years but it has now been topped out so you can see the full height and scale. It just shows how unfair the process is. It seems if you put the wrong guttering on your house or use the incorrect glazing, the council jump on you for enforcement. But you can build this enormous structure without the right planning permission and no enforcement is carried out until it is too late."
Objections and deviations
More than 70 residents attended a recent site meeting and over 100 have lodged formal objections to the now seven-bedroom home, expressing their anger at the situation while building work continued. Tavis, who lives there with his partner Charlotte Bolton and his daughter, said permission was initially granted for a low-lying single-storey building built into the hillside. But when the builders hit ground water they backfilled the hole with concrete, he claimed.
The end result has been a home, he describes as, "significantly higher" than planned and in a different spot. It has gone through three different owners since 2007 and multiple planning applications - each time looking to increase its height and prominence, locals revealed. Enforcement teams have carried out a survey and confirmed several deviations from the approved plans - including the building being higher, larger and not in the approved spot.
Tavis added: "The new application has been submitted as part of a wider game to avoid enforcement action. The changes are so significant and widespread that all the rest of the drawings from roof light location also require total update. A cease order needs to be applied to all works on site whilst a detailed new planning application is submitted. If this had been put in place when the concern over levels was first reported two years ago, when the concrete pad was poured, this could have been resolved then, reducing the damage that will now be more difficult and costly to rectify."
Residents and councillor respond
Local residents said the orientation, siting, height, volume, footprint and surrounding landscaping all "significantly" deviate from the original plans and would set a damaging precedent in the area. Tavis, who has lived there for 20 years, said the lane is full of very traditional Bath stone Georgian properties. He said landscaping and planting had also not been done as it should but the main source of anger was its increase in height and massing and increasing it from five bedrooms to seven.
The plot was originally sold for £1million with planning and locals believe another million must have been spent on excavation. Another "monster mansion" has also been built the other side, and Tavis said his family were now "sandwiched between two of the largest single residences built in Bath in about 100 years". Locals said the original developer won permission for the biggest they could do on the plot despite a number of opposition and then put it straight on the market. It was then bought by a wealthy individual who went through the process of three or four more applications to make it higher and more prominent.
Among those objecting on the council website, another local added: "It was already noted as the largest house ever approved by the council, and now apparently will include seven bedrooms." Local ward district councillor Joanna Wright said she backed the residents wanting enforcement action. She said: "It is outrageous. They got planning permission in 2013 and they haven't built it to that plan. They keep extending it and changing who owns it. The development just changes to whatever they want to do. Enforcement was involved and asked them to stop. They said they would stop but then put in a variation on the plans and on it goes. I've wrote again to enforcement and planning but why hasn't been dealt with by now I don't know."
The applicant and house owner Thomas Worrall, of Yate near Bristol, said: "The whole street has been against me from day one. I only bought the site to build my own house with planning permission already on it. Someone else took it all to planning seven years ago. There have been complications on the ground and the professional builders were not able to make it work so it was a little bit higher to start with. The neighbours all seem to think I have screwed the system and been sneaky. But I am not. I've now pulled all my guys off site and trying to deal with the planners. It was just a few mistakes on site. They think I have all this money and want to play the system but that is 100 per cent not true. I just want an easy life. I want to get my house finished and move my family into it. Everything has now completely stopped on site."
