Farmer hides castle from building inspectors

Yahoo/Reuters ^ | Jan. 25, 2008

[sockmonkey]

It's fabulous. I wish I had one of these.

[Reeses]

Nice house. The leftists, full of envy, will tear it down. It's a shame you can't build a nice place on your property in the UK anymore because of out of control resentment.

[visualops]

Photos??
Busybodies would tear down all sorts of stuff because of “planning”.

[GovernmentShrinker]

"It looks like a mock-Tudor house from the front and it's got two turrets at the back," the spokeswoman said. "I understand there is also a cannon.

The government meddlers might want to give due consideration to that last bit, before taking any hostile actions against the family's castle.

[WV Mountain Mama]

Yeah, I would really care that my neighbors have that on their property. Here comes the neighborhood. I couldn’t care less what my neighbors do on their property. They paid for it, they pay taxes on it, they leave us alone and it is none of my business.

[killermedic]

That house/castle is awesome....aside from being envious, why would someone want to tear that structure down?

[mnehring]

That is friggin amazing. Beautiful. Maybe the farmer can have it reclassified as art and get a special waiver.

[109ACS]

This guy needs to come to America. His talents and creativity would be appreciated here.

[mnehring]

I bet it will probably last hundreds longer than the envirowakos ‘planned and approved’ homes.

[visualops]

Wow it’s awesome, I can’t believe they would have him tear it down.
On the other hand, it looks like he’s not the only person trying to hide houses from planners:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=440771&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true

[visualops]

This requires some international attention. No-one in their right mind would tear down something that’s obviously awesome and in keeping with the English landscape.

[from occupied ga]

This guy needs to come to America. His talents and creativity would be appreciated here.

WHAT? You're kidding. The USA is infested with exactly the same sorts of restricitons. In addition we have homeowners' associations (in reality busybodys' associations) to ensure that you are denied the enjoyment of your property.

[najida]

Just dayum!!!

[Just another Joe]

It’s amazing. They’ll let a huge pile of hay cobered with blue plastic sit for years but a beautiful house like that has to be torn down because it’s in a, “green belt”, that’s supposed to be beautiful landscape.

[Hildy]

That's an easy thing to say...and we've talked about it (and fought about it) on this site before. We had a house that we kept nice...the man next door from us refused to take care of his property..not only was it an eyesore, it was a danger..he never took down his christmas lights, the rook was shake (in southern California, that's a disaster waiting to happen). Never cut his lawn, his trees, shrubs..you get the picture. He had garbage strewn all around. And yes, he has a right to do that, but what about my rights? We shared a common fence. If that thing caught on fire, my house would have been effected. Also, I believed, at the time, that the resale value was greatly effected (although, honestly, it turned out people were really crazy during the real estate boom and paid anything for houses.) SO, yes, what people do on their property is their business, but if you live in a community where the houess are all right next to each other, than there really should be some common courtesy extended..we are all in this together.

And yes, I did speak nicely to him...and then I called the fire Dept. who informed me there was really nothing they could do. He was given a notice for keeping cars without tags on this property, but that didn't stop him.

I do detest HOA's, but there are reasons for them. Until, of course, they become too powerful, which they always do! So, I do not know what the solution is.

[robomatik]

you have to admit that it is a little strange in appearance. but, it IS cool. even though he broke the rules, my verdict is not guilty. let it stand.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

100 percent agree. Comeon down to the Missouri Ozarks and build away. Plenty of stone around here.

[Octar]

WHAT? You're kidding. The USA is infested with exactly the same sorts of restrictions. In addition we have homeowners' associations (in reality busybodys' associations) to ensure that you are denied the enjoyment of your property.

I have a friend who received an unfriendly visit from her homeowners association because she purchased the wrong color garden hose. Green hoses were the only ones the needlenoses deemed proper and appropriate. She, the heretic, bought a yellow one.

[org.whodat]

This guy needs to come to America. His talents and creativity would be appreciated here.

You should support the man and his efforts, not tell him to give up and move else where.