An Englishmans house is his castle.......

[Timmy40]

.....until the Council make you knock it down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-323321...

I feel a bit sorry for this guy, after all he's built a fairly modest 4 bed house on his farm, admittedly without planning, but then it's hardly an eye sore and not as though the countryside is about to become studded with mock castles.

Perhaps there's an element of jealously from the Council pencil heads?

[Timmy40]

My sympathy was sort of tongue in cheek, the irony is though if instead of keeping Suffolk Cattle on his farm he'd applied for permission to surround it with security cameras, lights, a 10ft high fence, roads, and covered it with 60,000 solar panels the planners would have thought that was a marvellous idea.

[Timmy40]

As I say, 100 acres of hideous solar panels they would think was a fantastic idea.
In other areas they'll happily swamp a small village with 300 estate homes. Ignoring local voices.

[Timmy40]

From what I've heard he now says he can't knock it down becauase newts have moved into the pond, and bats have started to roost in it. The irony is he could have bought a run down old farmhouse got permission to demolish it and put up something 50% bigger all legally and above board. Which is what I've just done.