With its rural setting, attractive stone cottages, winding lanes and ancient church, the village of Paul in the far west of Cornwall may seem an unlikely place for a nasty neighbourhood row.
But locals have accused a wealthy developer of causing a planning ‘apocalypse’ after converting a barn into newbuild homes worth more than £1million.
Alasdair Macaulay bought the property in 2021 and has been at war with other residents ever since.
They allege he has ‘totally ignored’ regulations and has built walls, landscaped gardens and built a driveway all without permission, claims denied by the developer who is now seeking full retrospective planning consent
They say the development, which consists of two semi-detached properties, has pulled in a large area of land without authorisation and is dwarfing neighbouring homes.
Locals are now demanding the unauthorised works be demolished, citing the example of the Captain Tom Memorial Building, which was torn down by Central Bedfordshire Council.
One angry resident told the Daily Mail this week: ‘So we’re supposed to believe somebody’s bought a semi-detached house with no legal drive for over £1million?
‘Those figures might add up in West London but not up here.
Locals have accused a wealthy developer of causing a planning ‘apocalypse’ after converting a barn into newbuild homes worth more than £1million
A multi-million pound two home- barn conversion in rural Scotland has been turning heads for the wrong reasons
After lobbying the council, locals are demanding the unauthorised works be demolished
‘You could find a dozen bigger and much nicer houses around here without the ongoing planning issues for less than that.
‘The sold sign went up around a year ago but nobody has moved in. Coupled with the disputed drives and gardens, there’s something very fishy about the whole thing.’
When the Daily Mail visited the site in October, there was no sign of any activity, with neighbours saying builders packed up around a month ago.
Adding to the confusion, the larger of the two homes – which has five bedrooms including a master suite, four bathrooms, 6m high ceilings and a designer kitchen – appears to have sold for around £1.15million.
But almost a year after the now-faded sold sign went up nobody has moved into the house and no new owner appears on the Land Registry.
The estate agents’ listing for the sold house boasted of ‘an impressive driveway with so much parking’ and described the unpermitted 14-metre terrace with large lawn as ‘the perfect place to entertain or just enjoy the sun’.
The council had initially started enforcement action last year after rejecting a retrospective planning application, but it was thrown out when the developer submitted another application for the works.
It was again rejected by the council, and in September an appeal to save the unauthorised drives and gardens was thrown out by the Planning Inspectorate.
When the Daily Mail visited the site there was no sign of any activity, with neighbours saying builders packed up around a month ago
A mock-authentic Cornish stone wall juts out from the new modern barn at an angle
Aerial photos show the huge new barn conversion set against the tiny Cornish village
Residents are now urging the local authority to take decisive action and restore the land back to its original state.
One local, ‘Julie’, who has lived in the village for more than three decades told the Daily Mail many locals were up in arms about how the situation has been handled.
She said: ‘It’s a complete bloody state up there.
‘The saga has been going on for almost five years now, originally we were told it was going to be affordable houses. How do you go from that to million-pound semis?
‘If you ask me they’re a complete white elephant, nobody in their right mind would spend that on a semi-detached house.’
Morvah Stubbings hit out at the £1.15million valuation, saying: ‘This asinine figure for a semi-detached house in Paul is suggestive of a brazen, out of touch and avaricious stance.
‘It is also suggestive of a supreme confidence that this new application will succeed over any potential objections since searches conducted at a conveyancing stage will expose the significant problems that remain, and no solicitor would recommend a sale proceeding under these circumstances.
‘Listing the property without this resolved is frankly astonishing.’
A Cornwall Council spokesperson said: ‘The council’s planning enforcement team have noted the appeal decision’
Villagers have accused the wealthy developer of causing a planning ‘apocalypse’
Local resident Richard Crowe also blasted the barn conversion as ‘cynical’ adding it ‘should never have been allowed in the first place [and is] ruining the entrance to an old and much-loved village’.
Bernice Daly added: ‘The property in question is a converted ‘farm building’ which should have retained the same footprint. This was blatantly never adhered to.
‘The promised copse obscuring the front of the building has never materialised despite the requirement for this to be done.
‘I do not believe that myself or any of my neighbours would be given a carte Blanche to disobey the planning laws, and wish to know why an exception was made in this case.’
Cornwall Council has come under fire for not carrying out enforcement action following an 18-month-long back and forth with several retrospective applications and appeals submitted by the developer.
A spokesperson for local residents told Cornwall Live: ‘Overall, local residents are not only incensed by the development and what’s going on at the site, but also extremely concerned by the lack of Cornwall Council oversight and intervention. They are acutely aware that the longer unauthorised development goes on the less likely it is that any work done/infrastructure put in place by the developers will be rolled back.’
They added: ‘Although planning enforcement are now aware and have initiated a case file, they have clearly ‘come very late to the table’, then only in response to repeated protests from local residents.
‘Overall, the unsightly development makes a mockery of central and local government encouragement of neighbourhood planning, under which residents are supposed to have meaningful input into development in their local areas.’
It is unknown what the ultimate fate of the humungous conversion will be
‘Cornwall Council enforcement should act very quickly here as Central Bedfordshire Council did with the unauthorised extension to the Captain Tom memorial building. When the developers’ appeal was dismissed the council promptly demolished the building.’
Last February, an unauthorised spa building built by Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin was demolished.
The family had been given planning permission for an L-shaped building in 2021 to house memorabilia and celebrate the legacy of a man who raised £38million for the NHS, but instead built a larger £200,000 C-shaped one containing a spa pool.
Developer Alasdair Macaulay was contacted for comment in October.
A letter from his planning agent described residents objections as ‘unwelcomed and derogatory statements regarding the approach and motives of the appellant’.
It adds: ‘To be clear, the appellant has undertaken the conversion works entirely in accordance with Planning Law and established consents at the site.’
A spokesperson for the local authority’s planning department told Cornwall Live: ‘The council can confirm that it is currently investigating alleged breaches of planning control at this particular site and that after inspecting the land and having met with the landowners it has concluded that a breach of planning control has occurred.
‘It is the council’s understanding that a retrospective planning application will be submitted in due course seeking to address the works which have been undertaken.’
