A man's home is his castle – especially when he’s spent £100,000 lovingly transforming it from a 1960s bungalow.
Businessman Syed Raza Shah spent
most of his life savings adding two extra storeys to the flat-roofed
property, not to mention a turret and sweeping balconies.
The result is a seven-bedroom home for him, his wife Farah and their four teenage children, worth £2million.
A man could be forced to tear down £2 million dream seven bedroom home after he built an 'inappropriate' extension
Trouble is, the council says that
wasn’t quite what Mr Shah had permission to do – so it has served him
with an enforcement order to demolish the house.
Mr Shah was granted planning
permission to increase the floor space of the old house by around 45 per
cent, and to build a new roof, but the council says he has far exceeded
that, effectively making it a ‘new build’.
He applied for retrospective
planning permission for what he calls the ‘minor adjustments’ to the
bungalow, but it was refused because the house is in the green belt and
an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Syed Raza Shah was given permission
to increase the floor space of a five-bedroom bungalow (pictured) in
Barton-Le-Clay in Bedfordshire by 45 per cent
Mr Shah bought the 1960's bungalow
for £750,000 in 2008 and soon started work on an extension, which he
said was agreed by local planners
Yesterday Mr Shah, 45, a director of
a beauty salon, who is appealing against the decision, admitted he
‘bent the rules slightly’.
But he disputes the council’s claim
that he has increased the floor space by 200 per cent and questions why
it waited until the end of the 18-month construction before ordering his
new home to be razed to the ground.
He said: ‘The council haven’t done their homework properly before issuing an enforcement notice.
‘Their 200 per cent figure is
ridiculous. They have lost the plot. I have measured it myself and I’ve
increased it by 12 to 15 per cent. Yes, I have bent the rules slightly.
But I only did it to make it aesthetically more pleasing. The old
building was dilapidated; it was just awful. It was ugly and people have
said it looked like a caravan site.
But officers at Central Bedfordshire
Council say the resulting three-storey building, complete with a turret
and long balcony, amounts to a 200 per cent increase and they have
refused retrospective planning permission
The council has said the amount of
alterations mean the house is now a totally new building and has served
Mr Shah with an enforcement order to demolish the home
‘Yes, we have made some minor adjustments, but I don’t see the decision that has been made justifies demolishing the house.
‘I apologise for bending the rules, but the building has been going on for months.’
He bought the five-bedroom bungalow
in the village of Barton-Le-Clay in Bedfordshire for £750,000 in 2008,
and started work on extending it.
Called The White House, it is set
back 200ft from the road and approached by a winding driveway, with the
nearest neighbours 20 yards away on either side.
There have been 11 formal complaints
from neighbours, who say the property ‘clashes with other houses on the
road’ and it ‘sticks out like a sore thumb’. The parish council also
says it is ‘out of character’ and ‘disproportionate’.
But Mr Shah countered: ‘It doesn’t overlook anyone, and you’ve always been able to see it from the road.’
Councillor Nigel Young said:
‘Councils must follow planning law and planning regulation and this is
well outside planning regulation, so we are obliged, as we are with all
cases of unlawful development, to act on behalf of all our residents and
issue enforcement notices.’
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