Television presenter Sarah Beeny has entered crucial showdown talks with Somerset Council officials over the future of her illegally constructed country mansion, which has been branded a 'mini-Downton Abbey'. This follows an enforcement notice ordering the property to be demolished, capping a bitter six-year dispute with local residents.
A Six-Year Planning Battle Escalates
The Property Ladder host, 53, has been locked in a protracted conflict with both the council and neighbours since purchasing a rural estate in the village of Stoney Stoke for £3 million in 2018. Her renovations and the Channel 4 series 'Sarah Beeny's New Life in the Country' have documented the project's progress, but also highlighted its contentious planning status.
Initially, Beeny had permission to demolish the original 1970s farmhouse to build a new seven-bedroom home. However, she instead chose to extend the existing building without the required planning consent. A subsequent application for retrospective permission was refused, and an appeal was lost in March 2024, leaving a live enforcement notice demanding the structure be razed to the ground.
Council Confirms 'Clear List of Actions' Agreed
A spokesperson for Somerset Council confirmed a meeting has taken place, resulting in a "clear list of actions and a timetable" being agreed with Beeny and her representatives. The council declined to specify if demolition was definitively required, citing the sensitivity of ongoing discussions.
The authority's visit involved a specialist team, including ecological experts, due to the discovery of a bat roost in the original dwelling. The council stated it is working with a licensed ecologist to determine necessary mitigation, indicating any demolition would need to be sensitive to the protected species.
Local Fury and Comparisons to Captain Tom Row
The saga has deeply frustrated villagers. One resident, retired IT worker Kevin Flint, 73, compared Beeny's actions to those of Captain Tom Moore's daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, who built an illegal spa complex later ordered for demolition.
"It's created a lot of bad feeling in the village," Flint said. "She was given permission to build the new house on condition she knocked down the old one which she extended and refurbished, it's just not on. I think the fair thing would be for anything unauthorised on the site to be demolished."
This is not Beeny's first major planning controversy on the estate. In 2022, she fought a two-year battle to keep a James Bond-style treehouse built with her children. She has also built a thatched boathouse and greenhouse without permission, later securing retrospective 'change of use' consent for the land despite parish council objections.
Furthermore, last year she was forced to abandon plans to convert two barns into four new homes following local objections, with six complaints accusing her of "riding roughshod" over planning laws and ignoring a previous enforcement notice.
The outcome of the recent council talks remains uncertain, leaving the future of the multi-million pound 'mini-Downton Abbey' hanging in the balance.
