Families living on a Millionaire’s Row of houses that inspired author PG Wodehouse are furious over a huge new home that has allegedly been built in breach of planning permission.
Earlier this year, angry residents were warned to stop bombarding parish councillors with abusive phone calls over an ‘unsightly’ new build in Wodehouse Road, in the leafy coastal village of Old Hunstanton in Norfolk.
Now, the owners of The White Cottage, formerly run as a seaside guest house, are seeking retrospective planning consent for the new three storey building they have built on the site.
At a planning meeting on December 2, councillors are being recommended by planning officers to vote ‘yes’ despite a barrage of new objections from the other house-holders and the parish council.
Houses on Wodehouse Road often change hands for more than a million pounds.
Its namesake – Jeeves creator PG Wodehouse – was a regular visitor to the village in the 1920s and 1930s, staying at Hunstanton Hall, home to his friend Charles le Strange in the 1920s.
Hall itself is set in its own parkland grounds and down the driveway is The Clock Tower, a grade two listed moated coach house built in 1876, which last sold for £1.7 million.
The current row started in 2022 when construction of a house began on Wodehouse Road, not far from the beach, on the site of the previous cottage, which was demolished.
Families living on Millionaire’s Row of houses inspired by PG Wodehouse have been left enraged by a new home on their street
They claim the property had been constructed in breach of planning permission complaining it was a three-storey home rather than a two (Pictured: Planning drawings)
Villagers complained that it had been built as a three-storey home, rather than two, as they believed it should have been and bombarded West Norfolk Council with objections that it was ‘too big and too high.’
The parish council is also opposed, claiming that there may have been breaches of the original planning permission.
One parish council objection stated: ‘The breaches have led to the existence of a building that appears to be too big and high for its plot and the surrounding dwellings and which directly impacts upon the light and privacy of the immediate neighbours and is viewed as being unsightly within the local neighbourhood generally.’
The owners have been pursuing the application through agents and have so far only been identified in planning documents as Mrs and Mrs H Middleton, from Lincolnshire.
The Middletons deny breaching planning conditions, saying the dwelling was always approved as a three-storey home.
They only admit that there have been ‘slight alterations’ to the balcony and windows, as well as an additional basement room.
The building is on the west side of Hamilton Road at the junction with Wodehouse Road in Old Hunstanton.
The site is within the development boundary for Old Hunstanton and outside the Old Hunstanton Conservation Area, and also outside of the Norfolk Coast National Landscape.
The Middletons are seeking retrospective consent to vary the original plans for the development approved in 2023. The cottage has already been flattened and the replacement building largely completed.
The application has provoked a new backlash from residents, but planning officer Connor Smalls is recommending approval.
The parish council is also opposed, claiming that there may have been breaches of the original planning permission
Mr Smalls said: ‘Contrary to the objections raised, the original approved application was always a three-storey building: lower ground level (partially submerged), ground floor and first floor. The addition of the lower ground floor room utilises an existing void space that already existed as part of the footings for the house.
‘This has resulted in no additional digging, has not resulted in any changes to the structural configuration of the dwelling and has made no difference to the external appearance of the overall property.
‘Due to the partially submerged nature of this room, there is no overlooking of any neighbouring properties.’
But the Old Hunstanton Parish Council objects: ‘Local residents and neighbours are objecting, and the planning enforcement officer should make the applicant adhere to the initial agreed plans, in particular for a two storey building instead of a three storey building, which a site visit indicates it is, and, generally.’
Locals claims that attempts to downplay the development have involved little more than putting in plants to screen it.
Neighbour Dawn Brooke objected: ‘The BBQ area is not very tall their side showing how they can look straight over it into our kitchen window, side door, along the passage and back garden. Plants are not the answer.
‘To add insult to injury, after trying everything that the council refused, their answer is just cover it up with plants. But they still have a three storey retrospective house – unbelievable.’
Locals are also claiming the house built in 2023 is even bigger than the one in the plans rejected the previous year for being too large.
Objector Michael Oldham added: ‘A culture of non-compliance and contempt for the Planning Regulations/laws has been hanging over White Cottage since the first application in 2022 was rejected on multiple grounds including size.
‘The building constructed in 2023/2024, incorporating large areas of unapproved construction, may prove to be a larger building than the rejected proposal in 2022.’
