£2.8m. house knocked down without planning permission

Sir John and Lady Jennings submitted a planning application, after a compliance notice was issued by planning officers from the Development & Planning Authority earlier this month, as well as an interim compliance notice to stop all work immediately.

‘A visit to the land on 6 March revealed that the former dwelling house known as Qila had been completely demolished and that works had commenced on rebuilding, both without planning and building control permission,’ the compliance notice stated.

The same day the notice was issued, a planning application was submitted for the demolition and the building of a new house.

In the application Arctech Freelance Architecture’s Niall Bougourd said that his clients recently bought Qila in York Way – a three-bedroom bungalow, with sea views of the east coast. They had planned to renovate the house substantially, and there was permission in place to demolish the conservatory and erect a new extension.

‘Early structural trial holes have identified that the current foundations and sub-structure is not suitable to facilitate the proposed extensive renovation and as such, under advice from the engineer, the existing structure has been entirely demolished, although the proposed scheme has not changed in size or aesthetics from the previous application,’ Mr Bougourd wrote in the application.

He added that it was intended that the new home would be on a single level, with no steps.

‘The property has been designed to be slightly larger than the original dwelling’s footprint but not too overpowering on the plot to cause any contentious issues,’ he said.

The new build will also have three bedrooms, but a larger kitchen and re-organised living space.

Qila was sold for £2,876,250 in 2021.

. The application can be viewed at https://www.gov.gg/liveplanningapplications