A British man built a castle.
Turned down for several building permits, he went ahead and built it anyway, hiding it behind a wall of hay bales.
He was hoping to take advantage of a legal loophole. It looks like that argument may not fly.
It’s unfortunate. It looks like a pretty nice castle. I like the turret. I hope he triumphs over those who have the knickers in a twist — namely, the Reigate and Banstead Borough Council.
Published by Allyn
A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.
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Trouble is, the guy clearly doesn’t care a toss about the regulations since he’s also done things like build a go-kart track without permission, with all the noise and air pollution that causes.
If the castle was in an urban area maybe he’d have some sympathy from me, but it’s on greenbelt land. Building on the greenbelt without permission is not only illegal, it’s morally dubious. Allowing it to stand sets a precedent in law which would see the ‘lungs’ of british cities paved over with boxy starter-homes.
He also, given his history, sounds like a right-wing libertarian nutter, who thinks he can do whatever he wants and that the law somehow shouldn’t apply to him. So, really, tough.
Mags, that’s fair.
I’m not familiar with British zoning regulations or the greenbelt concept. From this American’s perspective, I saw something to applaud in his, “I’m sticking it to the man!” attitude.
At the same time, I don’t really care for libertarian nutters. I think they’re bad enough on this side of the pond. Of course, on this side of the pond, a libertarian nutter is bound to have an arsenal at his disposal that would make anyone quake in their boots.
Anyway.
I don’t know how this will play out. My guess? He’s hoping to get the public on his side — stupid planning council out to take his dream home. That he’s having to resort to that means that it probably doesn’t look good for him.
I’ll check back in a month. 🙂
I would say the guy is clearly in the wrong. Whether or not he can find a way to squirm out of it is another topic entirely, but I’d definitely say that he’s in the wrong.
Ignoring that, that is about the coolest thing I’ve seen in awhile. I’d love to live in a castle, hehe.