A man has been ordered to demolish his “monster mansion” by council chiefs – after he built it without planning permission. Gurwinder Singh bulldozed his modest semi-detached house and replaced it with a four-bedroom property.
Walsall Council has issued Mr Singh with an enforcement notice ordering him to tear the building down following complaints from neighbours in Willenhall, West Mids. It is thought the brand new house would have cost in the region of £200,000 to build – and would have been the biggest property in the area.
Mr Singh had planning permission for a modest extension to the 1960s house but he went one step further and demolished the entire building. Last week councillors rejected a retrospective planning application for the new building and ordered Mr Singh to tear it down after they received 95 objections from residents.
Committee Chairman Mike Bird said: “This is a very serious situation. An extension was approved and what we got was a brand new house to the detriment of the adjoining neighbour.
“Walsall Council is going to put 'force' back into enforcement. I am sick and tired of seeing breaches of planning regulations around the borough because people think 'I do that because I can'.
"This committee are telling you now, you can't do it because we won't let you. When we find out, we will prosecute you. Adjoining neighbours have suffered hell. There has been a lack of co-operation from day one so I welcome the enforcement.
"We've got to be shown to make a stand against people who think they can build anything they like in relation to the planning permission they receive."
Frank Whiteley, senior planning enforcement officer said ordering a demolition is a “last resort”. But he added that it would be very difficult to alter the existing structure which would be “similar to demolition”.
Residents living near the house, which sits on the corner of Sandringham Avenue and Arundel Road, welcomed the decision. One neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “I think it's right that he should tear it down.
“Why should you anyone get away with breaking the rules. The house is bloody huge and looks like a horrible monster mansion. None of the other houses in this area are that big, what on earth was he thinking?”
Another said: "When the house started going up I heard the next door neighbour whose house is attached could actually see the cracks coming through their walls. I'm glad the council have nipped it in the bud now before it's finished. It was at least three times the size of the original house. It looks like a sports hall."
Mr Singh’s agents, Architecture and Interior Design Ltd said: "Unfortunately, while work was being carried out the builders on site removed most of the existing walls of the residential. This meant that the building required new brick work and when enforcement got involved they suggested that to fix the issue the site should go through the application process again as a retrospective planning."
