DPA orders Fort Richmond owner to remove cladding
The owner of Fort Richmond has been ordered to remove stone cladding which was added to a protected monument without permission.
The Development & Planning Authority has told Julian Mountain that the building, an Occupation-era bunker and gun emplacement, must be returned to its former condition by 19 June.
The work was carried out in advance of a retrospective planning application, which the authority refused in December.
It is the third enforcement notice for work carried out on the property since it was sold by the States for £1m. in 2019 in a controversial deal which included part of a neighbouring house occupied by the Allez family, who recently started legal proceedings after being forced to spend tens of thousands of pounds to recover their home.
The latest enforcement notice will take effect on Friday.
‘Without planning permission, stone cladding has been affixed to a bunker/gun emplacement, a German Occupation feature, forming part of a protected monument and which affects the special interest by reason of which it is listed,’ said the authority.
‘An upstand has also been constructed around the top, to the front of the bunker/gun emplacement, consisting of various materials, including concrete, brick and rubble.
‘In breach of Section 14 of the 2005 law, development of land has taken place without planning permission and the said breach continues.’
The notice was served on Bembridge Ltd, c/o Mr Mountain at the fort, on 14 February.
Retrospective permission for the stone cladding to the Occupation-era building, located to the east of the access driveway to the fort, was received by the authority on 31 October.
Following a site visit on 28 November, officials advised the authority that the stone cladding disguised the Second World War feature as something from the mid-19th century, contrary to conservation practice and planning law and policies.
The authority’s enforcement notice orders that the stone cladding and all bonding agents used to affix it must be ‘removed carefully, so as not to damage the protected monument’ and the building must be restored ‘so its external appearance matches that which existed prior to the affixing of said materials’.
