A rich businessman is confronted with the possibility of digging up his tennis court and tearing a home gymnastics after losing his profession in a row of planning.
Mark Hepburn, 52, has failed in his attempt to have a field behind his £ 800,000 country house in a village near Southampton recognized as his garden.
The local population had initially expressed concern about the 'increased urbanization' of the area after the successful Starbucks coffee entrepreneur had built a bright blue tennis court, home gymnastics, bar, TV room and children's play space on the three -hectare rural location.
Mr Hepburn – who until recently owned a company with several million pounds – claimed that the plot had been used by the previous owners as a garden and that he and his family just did the same.
However, a planning inspector now has the Council's decision to refuse his application to formally convert the country into residential use.
Robert Hitchcock said that there was 'insufficient evidence' for the change of use, which means that all items in the field are now threatened to be taken out.
Hitchcock was rejected and said that there was 'opposing evidence' to show that the site had been used agricultural in recent years after Mr Hepburn had bought a herd of Alpacas to live on the land in question.
Details of Mr Hepburn's case came to the fore in a planning investigation in Winchester, Hampshire, during his failed appeal against the decision of the city council.
Mark Hepburn – who until recently owned a company of several million pounds – had received complaints about the development of agricultural land behind his country house of £ 800,000 six bedrooms
The locals brought concern about 'raised urbanization' after the successful Starbucks coffee entrepreneur had built a bright blue tennis court, home gymnastics, bar, TV room and children's playground on the three -hectare rural site (photo)
Until October last year, the father of three owned the successful Starbucks franchise 23.5 degrees that operates 110 locations of the popular coffee chain in the United Kingdom.
He bought the building with six bedrooms in the quiet Hampshire village for £ 740,000 in December 2017 and planned extra work to the house and the garden.
In evidence that the investigation was submitted, Mr. Hepburn said that when the previous owners had shown him around the building, it was the 'extensive garden' that appealed the most.
He said they told him how they used to walk their dogs and installed rope fluctuations on the tree for their children.
During the January investigation, Mr. Hepburn said: 'It is semi-rural, the house was not the nicest house, but it had an extensive garden and with a young family that is important, we spent more time viewing the garden than the house.
'[They were] Use the country how we would use it. '
After the family had been withdrawn, Mr. Hepburn said that they fulfilled a dream of his wife by buying a swarm of Alpacas, who lived on the back of the house on the back.
However, because they were pets instead of for commercial use, in 2021 he was asked by the council to request a legal development certificate, stating that the country was in residential use, not in agriculture.
David Bushby (depicted walking to the planning hearing with colleague -local Dawn Castell) said he should have been tolerated for more than five years of construction
Hepburn claimed that the conspiracy was used by the previous owners as a garden and that he and his family just did the Sam
“I received an e -mail from the council, they had a problem with the alpacas because they were pets,” he said.
'They said I had to make a request to change the use.
'[My wife] Always wanted as a child, she loves them.
“Our dream was to possess alpacas, they eat the grass and they are curious, they come up and approach you.”
He submitted the request in May 2023 and in July it was refused by the Winchester city council.
The planning investigation heard that the legal development certificate was refused because the council did not believe that the field had been continuously used as a garden for ten or more years, the threshold for certification.
To support the application, Mr Hepburn had submitted legal statements from him and the previous owner and stated that the field had been used as a garden and stretched until 1988.
After the certificate was refused, Mr. Hepburn built the bar and the gym at the end of 2023 and the tennis courts in 2024.
After the family had been withdrawn, Mr. Hepburn said they fulfilled a dream of his wife by buying a swarm of alpacas, who lived on the back of the house on the back of the house
Mr Hepburn said the investigation that he was not looking for a building permit for these developments, because he thought they were allowed under permitted development rights.
The bar and the gym, consisting of a weight machine, boxing and two elliptical machines, are housed in two wooden huts with a TV room also part of the complex.
He told the investigation that he was not looking for a building permit for these developments, because he thought they were allowed under permitted development rights.
Mr Hitchcock rejects the profession and said: 'I think there is insufficient evidence of an accurate and unambiguous nature to conclude about the probability of the probability that a residential garden use of the country has replaced all agricultural use and has done this on a consistent basis for a period of 10 years or more without an interruption on the entire site.
'Moreover, there is opposing evidence to show that use continued to exist within the definition of agriculture on land (and still), so that the change of use in a single residential use has not taken place.
“I conclude that the council's refusal to grant a certificate of legal use was well based and that the appeal should fail.”
The local authority – which has been approached for comment – still has to explain what happens next with regard to the structure that Mr Hepburn carried out on the land.
Speaking before the decision was made to touch neighbors at the businessman for 'doing what he wanted' and tried to 'go into' money in 'on land'.
Richard Callaway, 57, has said that the 'constant' work is the 'biggest reason' why he is looking for the area of the area.
After the certificate was refused, Mr. Hepburn built the bar and the gym at the end of 2023 and the tennis/Netball courts in 2024.
The roof roof said: 'In the time they have been here, it was just constantly built.
'I will not be much longer here, it is one of the biggest reasons to move, when it ends.
'The first thing they put in was a play area, we thought it was a strange place to place it.
'I think the whole goal was to get that country for planning, that is my opinion, he wants to cash on it.
“I think he has a big ego, I don't think he likes that he is being told, my opinion is that he will get his own way.
“I'm just tired of it.”
David Bushby, 60, a retired bank manager, said he should have been tolerated construction work for more than five years.
The neighbor said: 'We just support what the council says.
“He does everything he wants to do and pays his lawyers to find out.
“He gained an enormous amount of experience in the planning when he was building all Starbucks, he talks to planners throughout the country, but in his comments he said he thought he was allowed.
'We had three years at the back, two years, while they have done the huts and tennis courts, just for more than five years.
'The case is about agricultural land, whether it was used as a residential.
“Everyone with a field at the back is worried about building, you build a shed and when it comes to planning you can set a precedent.”
