Gordon Ramsay wins right to demolish house and build two more
Gordon Ramsay has defeated objections from his neighbours, to win planning permission to demolish his £4.4 million holiday home in Cornwall. The celebrity chef will be allowed to replace it with two buildings - one of which is down the bottom of the garden - nearer the sea.
The sticking point for some locals in the upmarket Cornish resort of Rock wasn't the demolition job, or the new home. They weren't even concerned about the building work - which will see a swimming pool built under the new house.
The real issue was the plan to build an annex at the bottom of the garden. Ramsay has done what he can to make it as discrete as possible - raising the ground around it, so the building itself maintains a low profile. However, neighbours are worried this will establish a precedent for building closer to the sea.
There were also questions of privacy, so part of the permission included installing privacy screens to the first floor terrace of the main property, and obscuring windows on the annex to protect the privacy of the people living next door.
Celebrity neighbours
Ramsay is not planning to be a full time resident, as this is one of three properties he owns - including his London home and one in Malibu. It means he won't have to spend every day living next door to people who are unimpressed with his building plans.
However, pushing through controversial building plans in the face of objections is never easy, so he may take some comfort from the fact that he is far from the first celebrity to go through it.
We reported last month that Robbie Williams's neighbours in Holland Park were apparently unhappy that his home renovations had taken two years - and there was still no end in sight.
Back in April, Judy Murray won planning permission to change the roof on a tower at her home in Stirlingshire. It seemed a fairly reasonable request, as the crenelated roof on the tower was designed poorly, so water was trapped there and it constantly leaked. However, some of the neighbours objected on the grounds that it would spoil the quirky nature of the house.
And one of the most controversial examples was a few years ago, when former Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross planned dramatic changes to his Grade II-listed home near Hyde Park. The idea was to leave the original facade of the house and build a new home behind it. Despite the fact that 19 of his neighbours complained, he was given permission to do the work.
