A farmer has been ordered to tear down a castle he built. The Sun reported that Robert Fidler, 63, constructed the castle complete with a canon, that he kept secret and hidden behind 40 ft of hay bales and tarpaulin. He kept the castle hidden for four years and tried to beat planning rules in the city.
Guidelines from the Reigate and Banstead council in Surrey said that any property that was built without planning permission could not be enforced against after four years or more. However the council did not grant the retrospective planning permission because he set out to "deliberately deceive" the council using the four year rule.
Fidler and his wife who live in Redhill, Surrey have now been ordered to demolish the house they built after a hearing. Inspector Sara Morgan said in a statement according to The Sun, "His actions in constructing the dwelling house behind a wall of straw bales, and then living in the building for over four years before the bales were removed, was intended to conceal the building and its use from the council's knowledge and thus prevent any enforcement action being taken before it was too late."
Councilor Mike Miller said to The Sun that he was pleased with the outcome of the ruling.
"Had this appeal been allowed, it would have set an unacceptable precedent for development in the green belt.
"The council has a duty to protect the green belt from unlawful development and the character of the borough - that is what our residents want and expect of us," he said.
The Daily Mail reported that once the Tudor style structure was finished, Fidler and his family moved in and lived there for four years before they revealed the castle in 2006.
"I can't believe they want to demolish this beautiful house," said Fidler to The Daily Mail. "To me they are no different than vandals who just want to smash it down."
Fidler and his wife spent £50,000 on building the castle. Fidler has five children from a previous marriage and he said they moved into the house on his child Harry's first birthday to a view of straw out of the window.
"We thought it would be a boring view but birds nested there and feasted on the worms. We had several families of robins and even a duck made a nest and hatched 13 ducklings on top of the bales," he said to The Daily Mail.
A spokeswoman for the Reigate council said to The Daily Mail, "Mr Fidler has built the house without planning permission, not sought retrospective planning permission and now claims it is legal because it has been up for four years. We don't think the four-year rule applies because it had been hidden behind bales of hay."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
