Surrey farmer loses ‘secret castle’ planning battle

  A Surrey farmer who secretly built a ‘castle’ behind straw bales and tarpaulin in a bid to hide it from local planners has lost his attempt to stop it being demolished. Yesterday, the High Court confirmed a council order that the “castle, built by Robert Fidler, 60, at Redhill in Surrey, must be knocked down. Fiddler moved into the four-bedroom property, designed to look like a castle, in 2002 with his wife and son and managed to live there for four years. He had hoped to rely on a legal loophole that grants immunity from eviction to homeowners who have lived in a property for more than four years – even if they failed to obtain the correct planning permission. However, in May 2006, Fidler removed the straw bales and tarpaulin and subsequently, in February 2007, Reigate Council issued him with an enforcement notice demanding that the building be demolished. The council said that the claim to immunity was invalid because the building and removal of the bales constituted a part of the construction process. In 2008, a government planning inspector rejected Fidler’s claim that the bales had not been part of the building work and confirmed that the building should be demolished. Rejecting Fidler’s appeal against that decision Deputy High Court judge Sir Thayne Forbes said: “In my view, the inspector’s findings of fact make it abundantly clear that the erection/removal of the straw bales was an integral – indeed an essential ‘fundamentally related’ – part of the building operations that were intended to deceive the local planning authority and to achieve by deception lawful status for a dwelling built in breach of planning control.” christian.metcalfe@estatesgazette.com