Millionaire founder of fashion brand White Stuff fights back after council ordered him to tear down two-storey double garage, skate park and tennis court he built in beauty spot without permissionSean Thomas built development in 2016 on farmland next to house in SalcombeBuilt on a site of outstanding natural beauty and called an ‘eyesore’ by plannersHe’s submitting new proposals to try and convince council not to knock it down By Rory Tingle For Mailonline Published: 08:42 EDT, 3 October 2019 | Updated: 13:00 EDT, 3 October 2019 The millionaire founder of White Stuff is fighting back after a council ordered him to tear down a two-storey double garage, skate park and tennis court he built without planning permission. Sean Thomas built the development in 2016 on farmland next to his house in Salcombe that is part of the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and next to another beauty spot. He hoped landscaping would make the additions acceptable to South Hams District Council but they disagreed and announced it would launch enforcement action against the ‘eyesore’. Sean Thomas built the development (circled) in 2016 on farmland next to his house in Salcombe that is part of the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and next to another beauty spotMr Thomas put in a retrospective planning application for the ramp, the court and the two-storey garage after they were built but that was turned down by the council last month.It ordered the enforcement team to start legal action ‘with regards to returning the land to its former condition’.The decision followed objections from West Alvington Parish Council, which called the scheme an ‘eyesore’ in a ‘unique and iconic landscape’.’The overall impression is that the owners have no respect for either the landscape in which they are privileged to live or the law,’ it said.Mr Thomas said he was proactively working with council officers and another application ‘to reflect the additional substantive landscaping measures’ would be submitted shortly.He said he and his family shared ‘local opinion that this is a beautiful and highly valued landscape’ and added: ‘We remain hopeful of a satisfactory outcome for all concerned’. He hoped landscaping would make the additions acceptable to South Hams District Council but they disagreed and announced it would launch enforcement action against the ‘eyesore’. Pictured is the garage, tennis court and skate park seen from above The decision followed objections from West Alvington Parish Council, which called the scheme an ‘eyesore’ in a ‘unique and iconic landscape’Didi Alayli, chair of the South Hams Society, said she was ‘fairly sceptical’ about Mr Thomas’s attempt to stave off enforcement action. ‘The refusal of this retrospective application was rightly firm and unequivocal,’ she said.’The South Hams Society would expect to see enforcement action against the whole scheme.’ Mr Thomas said he was proactively working with council officers and another application ‘to reflect the additional substantive landscaping measures’ would be submitted The council said officers were due to meet Mr Thomas, but it was too early to comment on what those discussions would lead to.The house at Gerston Point was itself built after a controversial planning application in 2011, on the site of a bungalow formerly owned by the environmentalist Tony Soper, co-founder of the BBC’s famous Natural History Unit.That development was finally approved in 2012 after some scaling back of the original plans.Mr Thomas and his wife later acquired an adjoining strip of agricultural land to build a tennis court, skate park and garage, which was finished in 2016.Although the planning application was for a ‘car port and storage’ only, the planners say he will also have to remove the building and engineering work for the tennis court and skate ramp.The planning decision says that the development ‘represents an unwelcome and incongruous intrusion into an undeveloped countryside location that is within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Undeveloped Coast’.The building results in ‘significant adverse impacts to the natural beauty, special qualities, distinctive character, landscape and scenic beauty of the South Devon AONB’. White Stuff was founded in 1985 and it has more than 120 branches across the United Kingdom
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White Stuff founder fights back after council orders garage demolition
