A COUNCIL is left feeling red after a disused beachside public toilet sold at auction for £169,000 – more than eight times its value.

The Sun said on Tuesday that the former washbasin, which overlooks a castle and sandy coast, had a guide price of £20,000.

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But online bidders went past that figure for the Long Rock estate near Penzance which was auctioned for Cornwall Council.

The building was sold with a strip of land of 0.12 hectares.

Senior auction valuer Katie Semmens said: “This is a rare and exciting opportunity to acquire this detached former public amenity block with land on either side.

“Situated in a truly spectacular coastal location, it offers stunning views of St Michael’s Mount and Mount’s Bay.

“Occasionally these types of properties are auctioned, although rarely in these types of locations.

”They can offer a variety future use, all subject to all necessary permissions.”

It’s not the first time an old toilet block in Cornwall has fetched loads of money.

In 2008, ex-public toilets in Newlyn cost £73,000 – five times the guide price.

And in 2015, another in Charlestown sold for a whopping £115,000.

In 2018, a former toilet block in Newlyn with sea views sold for £73,000 – almost five times the asking price – while in 2015 a former toilet block in Charlestown sold for £115,000.

A DISUSED public toilet on the beach looks like a small bargain at £20,000.

The former sink looks out onto a sandy bank with a castle in the distance.

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The 0.12 hectare plot includes land on either side of the detached block near Penzance.

It is the cheapest sea view accommodation in Cornwall and offers views of St Michael’s Mount, originally a Benedictine chapel.

The Long Rock toilet will be auctioned online on Wednesday – with a guide price of just £20,000.

A nearby one-bed apartment, without sea views, is for sale for £200,000.

Katie Semmens, from Clive Emson Land and Property Auctioneers, said: “This is a rare and exciting opportunity.

“It is in a truly spectacular location on the coast and offers stunning views.”

She added: “The toilets could have different uses in the future.”

In 2018, a buyer paid £73,000 for a toilet block in Newlyn, Cornwall.

Four years later one sold in Saltash for over £30,000.

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RESIDENTS are furious after their affordable new homes were boarded up – with no one allowed inside.

Developer Bridge View said council delays and “abnormal” costs have held up the delivery of 33 homes in the Cornish village of Calstock.

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According to recent council documents, there are 160 households on the waiting list for housing in the area.

The homes were granted planning permission in 2018, but Bridge View boss Michael Wight said delays have cost the company £1.2 million.

Wight blasted the council for “strangling the company’s cash flow” by blocking the sale of the houses.

Unexpected costs during the construction work cost the developer a further £750,000, draining the budget for 15 affordable homes.

The costs included a second road, a drainage system and a wall costing £750,000.

Affordable housing companies withdrew from development in November last year after rising costs.

This meant that the developer was unable to meet planning conditions, so the site was mothballed.

Councilor Dorothy Kirk called the dispute a “tragic situation where everyone loses.”

She told me BBC: “I hope we can make it through somehow. We have to find a solution, end.

“I don’t want Calstock to be robbed of its homes, I don’t want the developer to lose everything.

“It has been a long, expensive and difficult journey. We need to have houses for the local people.”

Cornwall Council said: “We are committed to working with developers who have been granted planning permission to ensure that a housing development and the agreed number of affordable homes are delivered in accordance with the planning permission.”

RESIDENTS living in a hidden Mad Max-style village say the council hates their natural homes and sculptures made from “leftovers”.

Trevone Quarry is a work center of traditional skilled workers and artisans, surrounded by 11 beautiful hectares of woodland.

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The hidden community of artists and craftsmen in Penryn, Cornwall, has just won a seven-and-a-half-year ‘David and Goliath’ battle with a council that tried to evict them.

Their picturesque home has rewilding areas, a communal garden, three hectares of native apple orchards, two hectares of nut orchards, vegetable and soft fruit growing areas, food forests and beehives.

But mechanical sculptor Rob Higgs said they had created a unique and prosperous community that should be used as a blueprint across Britain.

But Cornwall Council said it had breached planning permission and issued an enforcement notice because it was no longer “part industrial” and “agricultural”.

The council deemed it “visually objectionable” and said it had damaged “the intrinsic character and beauty of this sensitive landscape”.

But after a lengthy battle, Rob said the 13 businesses on site had finally been given permission to stay after winning an appeal to the planning inspectorate.

The quarry is designed to give artists and craftsmen such as stonemasons and blacksmiths the opportunity to carry out their work in renovated workshops.

It was described as a sustainable village from “Mad Max” in the Falmouth package and has become a thriving hub for creative businesses.

The quarry operated from 1877 to 1992, before being purchased in 2009 by Rob, a mechanical sculptor.

Together with Sophie Miller, an artist and environmentalist, the pair sought to create an inspiring space for people to work.

It was intended as an area where they would not pay ‘obscene’ prices to rent a space in Cornwall and enable a climate-conscious way of living with nature and art at the forefront.

The 13 businesses on the site range from world famous sculptor Tim Shaw, a blacksmith, Fal River Distillery, artist Bex Bourne, 99p Films, Falmouth Food Co-Op and stonemason Joe Taylor.

Rob said: “I bought an old, old quarry with the right to blast 1,000,000 tonnes and I thought, well, what the heck, get some artists to do a workshop?

“So when we asked the council if we could create artist studios and a nature reserve, they agreed and suggested we do it under industrial use.

“Five years later they came back and said, ‘It doesn’t look like an industrial estate at all.’

“But they said we should go for an industrial estate, we wanted an artist community.”

He continued: “It is because the artists gave love to their spaces and made them look beautiful, which to the officers meant that it was a residential area.

‘I had the right to blow up the building – which is considered ‘sustainable enough’ – but I wanted to set up an artists’ community in a nature reserve?

“That’s a whole different story, and when I started doing it, I had no idea it would be that.

“All I was suggesting was to put a few artists in industrial warehouses and not blow the place up.”

“What I suggested all these years was so radical to their ears, but to me it was so fundamental.”

Cornwall Council argued that planning permission for part agricultural and part industrial use had been breached to include residential use and that the site was not sustainable.

COMMUNITY SENSE

With support from the local community, Rob was able to pay the £80,000 costs and appeal the enforcement notice.

The planning inspector allowed the appeal, saying any “degradation of the landscape” had been significantly mitigated by the regrowth of vegetation.

But Rob claims it has taken a toll on everyone in the community – both mentally and financially.

He said he initially bought the plot of land in 2009, but only started living there years later as he had happily settled in a shipyard in Ponsharden.

He added: “I have created a village, a small hamlet and a grassroots community because people want to be here – they love it.

“25 years ago you could rent units at low prices in Cornwall, but it has been modernized – so there is now a huge shortage of affordable workspace.

“Most people don’t want to spend crazy prices renting a studio space, so therein lies Trevone Quarry: a great community that promises food, shelter and connection to beautiful nature.”

The community has since transformed from an abandoned lot to a thriving space for creative businesses.

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The first artist to join Trevone Quarry was Tim Shaw, who has just completed a permanent exhibition for the Imperial War Museum in Manchester.

Another member of the community is Elle Demaus, 32, a Rum Distiller for Stormy Petrel, who has been on the site for five years.

She said: “I have a greenhouse and I hope to plant a herb garden to experiment with flavors for my rum.

“Rob gives very fair rates and a lot of freedom in what I can do with the workshop.

“I’m attracted to the beauty of the place, I like the tranquility.”

Trevone Quarry grows around ten tonnes of willow and hardwood each year, providing tenants with free fuel, while solar water heating units have also been built from recycled materials left in the quarry.

I am attracted to the beauty of the place, I like the tranquility”

Elle Demaus, 32

The campsite has its own well, so that everyone has plenty of free water.

Rob describes it as a “new model of an industrial estate with the natural world woven into the fabric” with no distinction between them.

He has now encouraged people to come visit Trevone Quarry and see the ‘magic’ for themselves.

Cornwall Council said: “A planning enforcement notice has been issued in relation to unauthorized development at the site.

“The municipality continued to work with residents throughout the appeal process.

“The inspector who heard the appeal took into account recent changes in planning policy, which he is entitled to do, in his decision to grant planning permission.”

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The Northern Lights are forecast to be visible from Britain tomorrow evening as a small geomagnetic storm heads towards Earth.

The display was seen as far south as Cornwall, as was last weekend’s event.

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According to the British Geological Survey (BGS), geomagnetic activity will be active between March 8 and 10.

“Some isolated ACTIVE periods over the past 24 hours have been attributed to a glancing blow from the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that lifted from the Sun on March 3,” the BGS wrote.

“Modelling suggests that most of the CME will likely miss Earth from March 5, but a glancing blow could yield improvements early on March 9.

“If the effects of this CME combine with the high-speed current, there is a chance that geomagnetic activity could increase to STORM G1.”

A STORM G1 is a small geomagnetic storm that can cause a weak disruption to the electricity grids.

Although Aurora Borealis – also known as the Northern Lights – is visible even during weak geomagnetic storms.

A geomagnetic storm is what happens in the Earth’s magnetosphere as a result of solar wind, or a CME.

How can I see the Northern Lights?

First, it helps to be in an area with little light pollution.

Rural areas are best for sky watching.

Aurora phenomena are most often observed further north, but stronger bursts can move south, as noted last night by those in Cornwall.

Sometimes aurora can look white to the human eye, so it can help to take a quick photo with your phone to make the colors more visible.

If you plan to photograph the aurora properly, you will need a DSLR or bridge camera and ideally a tripod.

Experts have also advised that hopeful watchers shouldn’t be too discouraged if the aurora initially looks dim.

This is because they usually brighten over the course of a few hours.

People should also remain vigilant as the display can change quickly.

But it is the unpredictability that ensures that the attraction is on the bucket list of many.

More displays are coming

It is expected that there will be a large increase in the number of Northern Lights sightings from this year until 2025.

This is because we are entering the Sun’s solar maximum – when solar activity peaks during the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle.

During this time the sun produces ‘dramatically more’ aurora displays, explains Darren Baskill, lecturer in physics and astronomy at the University of Sussex.

The next peak was predicted for July 2025.

However, the Solar Maximum will arrive sooner than expected, according to NASA scientist Robert Leamon and Scott McIntosh, deputy director of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

They say the peak of the cycle will occur a year earlier, in mid-to-late 2024.

This means the best time of the decade to check the Northern Lights off your bucket list is just around the corner.

Sunspots – which produce solar flares that produce Northern Lights – will become twice as likely during solar maximum, which lasts between three and five years.

During that time, the displays will appear more vibrant with red, pink and purple hues typically rarer than the green waves.

Sunspots, the black areas on the Sun’s surface, are particularly active areas that can ‘burp’ the solar wind towards Earth.

When these streams of highly charged particles collide with Earth’s magnetic field, they cause the upper atmosphere to glow.

This heightened era of activity is why humans are blessed with such an epic spectacle.

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Britain was blessed with a dazzling display of the Aurora Borealis last night, reaching as far south as Cornwall.

Also known as the Northern Lights, this spectacle is usually seen in countries and areas closer to the magnetic North Pole.

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But from time to time, folks can take in bucket-list views further south.

Pictures flooded social media last night as people rushed to capture the Northern Lights on camera.

There were also plenty of messages from people who missed them.

But luckily there will be more Northern Lights shows to come that will be even brighter than last night’s.

More displays are coming

It is expected that there will be a large increase in the number of Northern Lights sightings from this year until 2025.

This is because we are entering the Sun’s solar maximum – when solar activity peaks during the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle.

During this time the sun produces ‘dramatically more’ aurora displays, explains Darren Baskill, lecturer in physics and astronomy at the University of Sussex.

The next peak was predicted for July 2025.

However, the Solar Maximum will arrive sooner than expected, according to NASA scientist Robert Leamon and Scott McIntosh, deputy director of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

They say the peak of the cycle will occur a year earlier, in mid-to-late 2024.

This means the best time of the decade to check the Northern Lights off your bucket list is just around the corner.

Sunspots – which produce solar flares that produce Northern Lights – will become twice as likely during solar maximum, which lasts between three and five years.

During that time, the displays will appear more vibrant with red, pink and purple hues typically rarer than the green waves.

Sunspots, the black areas on the Sun’s surface, are particularly active areas that can ‘burp’ the solar wind towards Earth.

When these streams of highly charged particles collide with Earth’s magnetic field, they cause the upper atmosphere to glow.

This heightened era of activity is why humans are blessed with such an epic spectacle.

Some Brits go to the beach rain or shine.

But those who only venture to the coast during moments of ‘shine’ should pay close attention to the Met Office’s rainfall data which reveals the country’s 20 rainiest seaside destinations. And take first place? It’s Aultbea.

The fishing village, in the Scottish Highlands, averages 121mm of rainfall each month, with more than half the year (209 days) receiving more than 1mm of daily rainfall.

In total, there are five coastal towns in Scotland in the rankings, as well as seven in Wales, three in Northern Ireland and five in England. These include Blackpool and two popular seaside resorts in Devon and Cornwall.

The rankings were compiled based on former BBC weather presenter Owain Wyn Evans’ analysis of the Met Office data in collaboration with Sykes holiday homes.

Scotland takes all three places on the unwanted winners podium, with the Isle of Tiree, Inner Hebrides, in second place (average rainfall of 106mm per month) and Lochboisdale, Outer Hebrides, in third (100mm ).

The Scottish streak continues with Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute (137mm) in fourth place, followed by Portrush in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, in fifth (81mm).

Rounding out the top ten are Fair Isle, Shetland, Scotland (sixth, 77mm); St Bees, Cumbria, England (seventh, 92mm); Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales (eighth, 100mm); Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales (ninth, 95mm); and Milford Haven, also in Pembrokeshire (tenth, 90mm).

Those planning a beach holiday in Britain may also want to avoid the popular seaside resort of Bude in Cornwall.

While Visit Cornwall says it is ‘known for its great beaches’ and ‘unique cityscape’, and receives an average of 75mm of rain per month, putting it in 17th place.

Other popular beach destinations on the list include England’s Slapton, Devon (19th, 93mm) and Blackpool, Lancashire (20th, 73mm).

On a sunnier note, the analysis shows that seaside resorts are generally drier than the rest of Britain, yielding an average 75 mm of precipitation per month, compared to 97 mm in the rest of the country.

What’s more, a separate survey of 2,000 British adults found that 72 percent wouldn’t let the typically wet British weather get in the way of a good stay.

And 61 percent think it wouldn’t be a British holiday if it didn’t rain, with sightseeing (53 percent), walks along the pier (37 percent) and enjoying fish and chips on the seafront (30 percent). percent) of the activities they would do anyway, the study shows.

Commenting on the findings, Evans, who is now a DJ at BBC Radio 2, said: ‘I think it’s great that holidaymakers will still embrace a Great British staycation even in the rain.

‘We Brits don’t let a bit of wet weather keep us indoors, and I’d say some activities could even be better with a few drops of rain.

‘Despite my experience as a weather presenter, the exact details of rainfall, especially showers, can be difficult to predict, so hopefully this analysis will give Brits an idea of ​​what to expect and plan for when heading to a seaside location this year. year.’

The Prince of Wales  is to spend £3 million on affordable housing at Newquay on land controlled by his Duchy of Cornwall. 

This sounds impressive – but less so when you read the small print. 

Only 40 per cent of the proposed development will actually be classed as affordable. One hundred per cent of the rental income will go into William’s coffers.

The unvarnished reality is that the Duchy, which William has inherited now that he has succeeded his father as Prince of Wales, is a hard-nosed business that seeks to maximise its profits. 

It provides William with a regular income estimated at £24m.

Of course any investment in affordable housing is welcome but let us not be fooled by the idea that this is unbridled generosity. It isn’t.

When, last November, a cheeky 11-year-old asked Prince William what was in his bank account, the heir to the throne feigned a sort of jocular ignorance.

A wise move. 

‘Too much to count,’ might be one answer. One billion pounds is another.

That’s the answer according to the calculations of the Sunday Times, which compiles an annual Rich List.

It is all rather opaque – deliberately so, no doubt.

For example, we don’t know how much has been passed to William in the way of money, art works or property by his wealthy relatives, including his late mother and the late Queen Mother.

Uniquely, royal wills remain secret.

We do know about William’s main source of annual income: the £24 million or so he now receives from his semi-feudal ownership of the Duchy of Cornwall, a sprawling estate of landholdings, businesses and properties.

The title is misleading as the bulk of the land it controls is in neighbouring county Devon, along with 160 miles of coastline plus residential and commercial properties galore across the country.

The tentacles of the Duchy stretch as far as Kent and include the Oval cricket ground in London.

It has become a formidable money-making machine.

Previously owned and controlled by his father as Prince of Wales, the Duchy of Cornwall is particularly interesting, not least in the light it sheds on how the royals first got rich – then stayed rich.

An often neglected point about the British Royal Family is that by 1760, as George III came to the throne, they were effectively bankrupt. 

That’s why the King did a deal with Parliament to hand over Crown lands to the state  in return for an annual maintenance grant known as a civil list. The lands in question are today managed by the misleadingly named Crown Estate – misleading because they now belong to us, not the Royal Family.

Parliament, meanwhile, would pick up the bill for costs previously falling to the monarch, such as for the army and the civil service.

The royals certainly did hand over a great deal of land – but this included neither the Duchy of Cornwall nor the Duchy of Lancaster (the companion land and business holding, which is now controlled by William’s father, the King.)

Why was the transfer never made? Only because wild tracts of south west England and the Bowland Forest were essentially worthless back in 1760. 

It has proved a costly oversight for the tax payer – and increasingly so as the years pass and modern property values inflate Prince William’s profits.

Not that modernity and the Duchy of Cornwall – which dates from 1337 when Edward III was on the throne go – hand-in-hand.

Some of its rules still have a feudal taste.

Take, for example, the dubious and little-known practice called Prince’s Consent whereby the Prince of Wales receives notification in advance of intended legislation.

Well before MPs get a chance to examine certain proposed new laws, a Prince of Wales can  argue for exemptions should the laws affect his private interests.

We know a little about this because, during a House of Lords debate in October 2021, Lord Berkeley asked for details of the issues on which the Consent of the Prince of Wales had been requested. 

There was a long and somewhat surprising list, including provisions to give direction to waste carriers and those concerning the way that smoke control areas were to work. 

On other occasions, Consent has been sought from the prince for Bills such as the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) Scotland Act 2021 and the Parking (Code of Conduct) Act 2018. 

Why, we do not know. 

However, the fact that consent had been requested and then recorded means, in practice, that the exemptions are available to the Prince of Wales.

Another exemption can be found in Section 14 of the Nuclear Explosions (Prohibition and Inspections) Act 1998.

This means that William can get out his chemistry set and cause a nuclear explosion safe if the knowledge that he won’t be prosecuted. 

This is absurd, perhaps, but other exemptions are rather more sinister. 

The Leasehold Reform Act 1967 exempts the Duchy of Cornwall from its provisions  meaning that William’s tenants are unable to buy their properties in perpetuity. 

Most other people in the country can. Just not William’s tenants. 

They do not even have a right to secure a lease extension.

Leasehold arrangements  – under which a landlord owns the ‘freehold’ and a resident can only buy a form of ownership, a ‘lease’ for a number of years – are hugely controversial and undergoing important changes.

Once again, however,  it seems the Duchy will be exempt from parts of the relevant legislation, in this case the new Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill currently winding its way through parliament.

One Duchy resident, Jane Giddins, has called this ‘naked feudalism’. 

The leases themselves are often abnormally short, perhaps 21 years, loading the dice still more heavily against the tenant. 

In one case, the Duchy allowed someone to fund and build a house on Duchy land, but demanded they sign a short lease enabling the transfer of the building to the Duchy after the death of the leaseholder – without compensation.

The Mail On Sunday reported that local people were asked to apply to live in a bungalow on a short, two-year lease. Yet the same building was offered with a much fuller ten-year lease to the doubtless more affluent readers of Country Life magazine. 

Meanwhile, rent increases, particularly on the Scilly Isles – which are claimed by the Duchy – have been rising steeply beyond inflation. This is fine for wealthy incomers wanting holiday homes, not so fine for the native population who have been there generations.

We can be in no doubt about Prince William’s personal involvement, by the way.

The latest Duchy report notes that ‘the Dukes of Cornwall have traditionally managed their own estates, and today the new Duke of Cornwall will carry the custom forward by actively leading the Duchy and chairing the Prince’s Council.’

The Prince’s Council  is the hands-on management committee of the Duchy. 

The senior officer is the new Lord Warden of the Stanneries, Hugo van Vredenburch C, FAC, IC, Rem, RC, CPDC, NZTF. His background is in investments and a new Investment Committee has recently been established to maximise income for William.

It is questionable how familiar the elevated Lord Warden is with the day-to-day challenges of the ordinary people who comprise the 600 or so Duchy tenants.

One aspect which will certainly be of interest to him and the Prince relates to those who live in the Duchy but subsequently die without leaving a will or any obvious relatives.

Under an antiquated provision called Bona Vacantia, which dates back centuries, the estates of such individuals are captured by the Duchy. 

In 2022, this amounted to the tidy sum of £293,000. A further £811,000 is being held in case of future claims, and is no doubt earning useful interest at the bank.

The Duchy has long said that this income is used for charitable purposes, after generous processing costs have been deducted of course, but recent revelations have shown that money from this source is in fact being used to improve Duchy properties, so pushing up potential rental income for William.

The latest Duchy report shows £109,000 was made in charitable donations in 2022, which seems modest when the overall profit is north of £20million.

The Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster are significant to the royals – and should be significant to us to. Not just because they were acquired in doubtful circumstances and not just because they are exploited with  acumen.

They are important because they sum up the ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ approach to finance that sees the Windsors’ income  balloon even while the rest of the economy flatlines.

The Royal Family, and especially King Charles, insists that this sprawling assemblage of land is a ‘private estate’. And that questionable assertion is used to avoid public scrutiny.

As they are judged to be private concerns, we have little means to establish the facts about the business conducted by the Duchies or the profits that they generate.

Yet, at the same time, the royals insist that, unlike every other private estate, no corporation or capital gains tax is payable. 

In fact, when he was  Prince of Wales (and owner of the Duchy of Cornwall), Charles tried to claim everything he could as a business expense so as to minimise tax. 

He included all 28 of his personal staff – butlers, valets, gardeners and the like – and costs related to Camilla’s Wiltshire home long before they were married. He even tried to claim his polo pony bills. 

You might think this had little to do with the operation of the Duchy.

The claim that these are private estates might seem to be undermined by the fact that the Duchies are regulated by the Treasury under an 1838 Act.

There is a requirement to produce an annual report for Parliament – which doesn’t sound so very private to me. 

In my view, all  profits from the Duchies should be paid over to Parliament as are the profits from the Crown Estate. 

For William to keep the £20 million plus that comes from the Duchy of Cornwall is daylight robbery.

So far, King Charles has been adamant that profits from the Duchy would end up in only his pocket.

Can we expect anything different from William?

Charles says he wants to modernise the monarchy, and William has if anything been even more robust on this point.

But modernising has to mean more than simply reducing the numbers on the Buckingham Palace balcony. 

To be at all meaningful, modernisation has to mean, among other things, the end of medieval slush funds.

William is not King, but he can lead the way by publicly accepting that the Duchy should be a public asset, not a private one, and oversee its integration into the public Crown Estate.

So is he going to be a truly reforming prince? On current evidence, I doubt it.

• Norman Baker is author of …And What Do You Do? What the Royal Family Don’t Want You to Know, published by Biteback 

RESIDENTS say a huge converted barn on the edge of their village is an 'apocalypse'.

Villagers in Paul, near Penzance, Cornwall, are outraged by the building development, claiming it breaches legislation.

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They claim that the “ugly” conversion is a “mockery” of the central and local government, CornwallLive reports.

Locals, who are demanding their council take enforcement action, also say no trees have been planted at the site.

A spokesperson for the residents' group said: “The huge new building, permitted within the 'permitted development under Class Q', is completely out of step with anything else in the picturesque village in both style and size.

'In addition, much of the work on site, on former agricultural fields, openly flouts relevant government legislation, with apparent impunity.

“There is also a long-standing unmet condition for the planting of trees on the site, with the aim of visually screening the original building and any subsequent conversions.

“No trees were ever planted.”

An application was submitted in December 2021 to convert the barn into homes.

The renovation is said to be in its final phase after a developer bought the site from a farming family.

Cornwall Council now says the property has breached planning control after repeated protests from locals.

A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said: “The council can confirm that it is currently investigating alleged breaches of planning control at this particular site and that following an inspection of the land and a meeting with the landowners, it has concluded that there have been is a breach of planning control.

“The council understands that a retrospective planning application will be submitted in due course to address the work carried out.”

The row comes after locals living near a Norfolk beauty spot accused a neighbor of building an illegal holiday home.

Elsewhere in Kent, a hotelier was so concerned about the demolition of a neighboring pub for new housing that he bought it himself.

Others, like Redrow, who had to demolish developments include a family in Bolton, Greater Manchester, who had built an extension.

And locals in Newport, Wales criticized 'jobsworth' officials who wanted them to remove the privacy fences.

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A father is furious after being ordered to demolish two beautiful country houses he built for his family – or face jail time.

Michael Merrill completed construction on his land called Six Acres in Wirswall, Cheshire, before being hit with a barrage of complaints from locals and neighbours.

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Cheshire East Council served the 51-year-old with an enforcement notice in 2014, saying the properties had been built “without planning permission”.

Officials also condemned the homeowner for ignoring “all other legal action by the municipality to have the property removed.”

The furious father appealed, but this was rejected in 2017.

Then in October 2022, Merrill was given until May 3 of the following year to destroy the buildings, including a viewing platform and paved areas.

He was also instructed to restore the land to its original state after construction.

In a bitter planning battle that lasted a decade, Merrill was taken to the High Court in Manchester early this year after failing to comply with these orders.

A judge ordered the father to demolish his family home within a year.

He was also slapped with a 12-month suspended prison sentence for contempt of court.

The reeling homeowner has been given until January 2025 to demolish the property and must vacate the land by July this year.

Cheshire East Council also received £17,409, in addition to £21,000 in costs from previous hearings.

A council spokesman said: “He claimed he had the right to 'live on the land' and that the Planning Act did not apply to him and his wife. This was rejected by the judge.”

Councilor Mick Warren, chairman of the Environment and Communities Committee, said: “We don't want people being sent to prison for planning crimes.

'Action to obtain an injunction and a petition for contempt of court are a last resort.

“However, where parties show no respect for the planning process in the event of an unacceptable and inappropriate development, the council has no choice but to take legal action and in this case the property owners were given significant time to comply. with planning rules.

“It is regrettable that the council had to take this action. Hopefully the prospect of a 12-month prison sentence will lead to compliance.

“The council has incurred significant costs and officer time in this matter and this could have been invested in other areas within the council services.

“It was important to ensure compliance with planning law.”

The Sun has contacted Cheshire East Council for comment.

It comes after a man embroiled in a bitter council row was forced to destroy his £25,000 garden or face a prison sentence.

Richard Hickson paid £5,000 for a patch of grass next to his garden in Istead Rise, near Gravesend, Kent, and built a six-foot privacy fence around it.

The father-of-two created the extra space for his five- and eight-year-old daughters and donated a further £20,000 to perfect it.

But now his “sanctuary” will have to be opened to the public.

Despite not receiving any complaints from Kent County Council for five years, the 37-year-old is now being threatened with “a fine, jail or both” if he does not take down the fence.

Meanwhile, another homeowner who spent £100,000 on a luxury treehouse is “heartbroken” after being told he may have to demolish it.

John Kitson built the one-bed hut in private woodland in Morval, Cornwall to create “the perfect hideaway”.

But Kitson is now faced with the prospect of demolishing the treehouse after becoming embroiled in a planning war with Cornwall Council.

He promoted his treetop holiday online as a glamping destination, but when the council saw the advert they claimed it posed an illegal safety risk.

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