Celebrity interior designer Celia Sawyer is fighting to keep a sunroom she has illegally built in the garden of a her Sandbanks home.
The star of Channel 4‘s Four Rooms had the glass building installed in 2020.
It is located at the bottom of the garden and it stands just 1.5ft from the edge of Poole Harbour.
The 21ft by 15ft building surrounded by composite decking and even has a sandy garden in front of it with sunloungers on.
Mrs Sawyer has happily used it for four years, often bathing outside the sunroom in her bikini in the summer months.
Then last year Mrs Sawyer became embroiled in a planning row with her next door neighbour over a first floor balcony he had built without planning permission.
She claimed that from the balcony Neil Kennedy was able to look down to the bottom of her garden where sunbathes.
Celebrity interior designer Celia Sawyer (pictured) is fighting to keep a sunroom she has illegally built in the garden of a her Sandbanks home
Celia and her husband, Nick, own the property on the left of this picture overlooking Poole Harbour worth £4million. They did not object to their neighbour Neil Kennedy demolishing a bungalow next door and replacing it with a modern three-storey house (right). The balcony in question is on the third tier of the house and is outlined in yellow
Mrs Sawyer became embroiled in a planning row with her next door neighbour Neil Kennedy (pictured) over a first floor balcony he had built without planning permission
Neil Kennedy’s house (right, white) and Celia Sawyer’s house (to the left)
Mrs Sawyer, 58, and her husband Nick lost out in the dispute when the local council granted Mr Kennedy retrospective planning permission to keep his balcony.
At the time the glamorous businesswoman called the decision ‘a disgrace’ and ‘unfair’.
She said: ‘It doesn’t make me feel good, to know he can stand on his balcony and look into our garden when I’m in my bikini.’
Afterwards BCP Council received an anonymous complaint over the Sawyer’s sunroom that also didn’t have planning permission.
The couple were invited to make a retrospective planning application to make the garden building legal.
One issue they must overcome is that the sunroom is so close to the water’s edge it is in a flood zone three area, meaning there is a high probability of it flooding from the sea.
A picture of Mr Kennedy’s house shows the balcony (outlined in red) and the new heat pump on top of his roof
Mrs Sawyer, 58, and her husband Nick lost out in the dispute when the local council granted Mr Kennedy retrospective planning permission to keep his balcony
The two properties are situated in a quiet cul-de-sac on Sandbanks
Usually, new buildings are not allowed to be built in these areas but one flooding expert has stated that because the sunroom is not habitable it is ok.
A decision on the matter by BCP Council’s planning department is due by the end of the week.
If she is denied planning permission Mrs Sawyer may have to demolish the sunroom.
Both she and Mr Kennedy, a retired accountant, declined to comment on the matter when approached.
But a neighbour has written a letter in support of Mrs Sawyer.
Paul Pressland said: ‘The sunroom is well designed and makes a positive contribution to the waterside of this part of the harbour.’