A luxury Merseyside wedding venue - that has hosted Boris Johnson Brexit talks and Coleen Rooney's 21st birthday - said it will 'collapse' after it was ordered to remove three large event marquees from its grounds.
Thornton Holdings Ltd, which operates the famous Thornton Manor venue in Wirral, has been ordered to remove the three marquees by the UK Planning Inspectorate - which has dismissed a number of appeals after a long running battle with Wirral Council.
The appeals were made by the company against enforcement decisions made by the council, which sought to have the marquees removed from green space at the luxury venue in Thornton Hough.
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On its website, Thornton Manor offers wedding events at its luxury Lakeside Marquee, its Walled Garden Marquee and another at its picturesque waterside Dell Pavilion.
The venue was famously used for secretive Brexit talks in 2019 between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and then Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
And in 2007 it played host to Coleen Rooney's 21st birthday bash.
It has previously been reported that back in 2011, Wirral Council wrongly sent Thornton Manor a document which stated the venue could build the three marquees on green space within the estate without any conditions attached.
But this was not what the planning committee had agreed at a meeting on the issue a year earlier, with the error blamed on an IT failure.
The council then insisted a number of conditions be added to the planning permission, including a time limit of five years, at which time the marquees could be pulled down if the committee wished.
A long-running dispute on the issue saw the council and the venue head to the High Court in 2018 - with a ruling going in favour of the local authority as the court cited the original planning permission was given in error and therefore not valid.
Thornton Manor contested this decision at the Court of Appeal in April the following year, but it upheld the High Court’s decision.
Wirral Council then reassessed the application for the three marquees and rejected it, deeming it an inappropriate development on greenbelt land that could harm protected species and heritage assets at the Thornton Manor estate.
The council then issued an enforcement notice requiring the marquees to be removed.
The dispute continued as the venue appealed the refusal of the planning permission and the enforcement notices.
But in a new ruling released last week, the Planning Inspectorate dismissed the latest appeals from Thornton Holdings and said the marquees must be removed in six months.
It's a decision Thornton Holdings says will have huge consequences for the famous venue, telling the inspectorate that removing the marquees would mean the company 'would default on its financial obligations.'
The report added: "This would result in job losses and the Manor and grounds being sold."
The company told the inspectorate that an 'exit strategy' would need to be put in place to 'manage the collapse of the business.'
The Planning Inspector said these issues were taken into account when giving the venue six months to remove the three marquees - rather than a shorter time initially given.
The report acknowledged that a large amount of financial work would be required "in attempts to save the business and indeed undertake the sale of the property which would be in the interests of ensuring the protection of the heritage assets."
The inspector added: “Thus, it seems to me a period of six months would be a more reasonable time frame, particularly given the direct job losses that would be incurred and the need for those employees to seek alternative employment.”
The ECHO has approached Thornton Holdings for a response.
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