“Just a few months ago it was one of the most impressive houses in its particular corner of Surrey. Now, after a bitter nine-year planning battle, all that remains of Robert Fidler’s dream home is rubble.
The mock Tudor ‘castle’ thought to have been worth in the region of £1million is just a pile of rubble after Mr Fidler obeyed a court order to demolish it rather than face jail.
He had managed to conceal the construction of his striking home in 2000 by hiding it behind a wall of hay bales on his farm in Salfords.
However, once Reigate and Banstead Borough Council discovered the building – which was put up without planning permission on green belt land – the farmer was ordered to knock it down.
That was nine years ago – and the once-grand home has now finally been razed after Mr Fidler, a 67-year-old grandfather of 11, was threatened with a prison sentence.
He said then: ‘Tearing down the house is completely pointless, it’s completely ridiculous, and totally wrong.
There’s supposed to be a housing shortage, but all they intend on doing is spending thousands of pounds getting one house demolished.’”
More at the source: Daily Mail
Thanks to Earthbag Chris for this tip. All I can say is this seems like a total waste. So sad.
This is a symptom of a bigger problem. The UK has a very real problem in that they don’t have enough agricultural land to feed their population. The ‘Green Belt’ is the UK goverment’s ham-handed attempt to protect the agricultural land left from being swallowed up by the cities.
I can see the importance of protecting farmland from development. Farming is important. Without land to farm, there is no farming.
Those facts don’t make it any less sad that a beautiful house was demolished.
I blame the entire system. We cannot continue to live this wasteful lifestyle where exploiting the land for short term profits is the law. Until we shift to more sustainable systems, like Permaculture, the waste and stupidity will be the norm.
A better method to protect the UK Green Belt would be to adopt the Bill Mollison definition of sustainability. Allow land owners in the Green Belt to build and develop their land, as long as they are INCREASING the total net energy of the system. That would prevent the land from becoming unsustainable suburbs, yet allow freedom for land owners to choose how to use their land. For that matter, such a policy could be implemented in suburbs as well. Hopefully in time the people will WANT to make this transition without being forced into it by overbearing governments. It’s the only way to survive in the long run.
Good points. Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, the way things are going it seems that gov will try to force some crazy policies on people because ‘they know best’.