AN American billionaire has been blocked from building a “grotesque” Cotswold mansion for a second time in fierce planning row.
Ronald Burkle, the largest shareholder of the members’ club Soho House, wants to build a six bedroom mansion but is facing strong local opposition.
One local said the six-bedroom home, complete with a wine cellar and gun room, was an “inappropriate, non-isolated, habitat-threatening, polluting, un-enhancing and insensitive monstrous carbuncle”.
The 72-year-old US retail billionaire holds 40 per cent of Soho House, which was bought in August this year for £2billion, and he hopes to build the mansion near to Soho Farmhouse club in Oxfordshire.
The Farmhouse is a rural retreat for Soho House members with prices starting at £295 a night.
This is Burkle’s second attempt to get the house over the line after an initial proposal in 2022 was rejected.
The mansion will be on 4.37 hectares of farmland in Little Tew, close to Banbury and Chipping Norton.
The area is a greenfield site and locals are strongly opposed to the area being developed.
West Oxfordshire Council said Burkle’s grand plans include a gun room, lift, entertainment room and wine store, several reception rooms, a butler’s pantry and a domed entrance hall inspired by Rome‘s Pantheon.
In the surrounding land, the billionaire hopes to build a new lake, gardens, stables, a courtyard, solar panels and a tree nursery.
The second application was rejected by planners who said the mansion and its grounds threatened the conservation area.
“The proposed development by reason of its nature, siting, scale, massing, design and form, would fail to represent a development which would help to raise standards of design more generally in rural areas,
“And would be adversely urbanising and transformative in the landscape, failing to significantly enhance its immediate setting, or be sensitive to the defining characteristics of the local area.
“The development would also result in a high level of less than substantial harm to the setting of the Little Tew conservation area,” continued the planners.
One resident slammed Burkle’s proposal as “grotesque” and they said it “would be a travesty for light and sound pollution to be increased by such a massive intrusion on the outskirts of our village”.
Just down the road in nearby Enstone, Burkle has had approval granted for the Mullin Automotive Museum.
The classic car museum was given the greenb light despite almost 200 objection letters being sent to the council.
Burkle told the Daily Mail he promised to be a good neighbour to the local residents.
The billionaire pledged to support local charities and community organisations.
Burkle owns several properties such as Michael Jackson‘s Neverland ranch in California.
