Property Ladder star Sarah Beeny in row with neighbours over lake plans at £3 million home, while also battling cancer
18 January 2023, 13:00
Property Ladder star Sarah Beeny has been embroiled in an argument with neighbours over a landscaping project at her £3 million country home, while in chemotherapy for cancer.
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Ms Beeny's plan was slammed as "intolerable" by one neighbour, as the presenter and her husband Graham Swift continued to build their 8,000 square ft, three-storey, seven-bedroom house nicknamed a ‘mini Downton Abbey’ set in 220 acres of land in Somerset.
The couple are creating a lake on their property, which in itself has not resulted in any complaints.
But the way they have got rid of the earth they dug out for the lake is causing headaches for neighbours, the MailOnline reported.
Without planning permission, Ms Beeny and Mr Swift used the excess soil to build up an embankment on the side of a field, to give themselves a ridge to protect their privacy and reduce the noise from passing cars.
A local parish council slammed the initiative, surmising that "it would appear no engineering design or thought has gone into the creation of these banks", and adding that they "have changed the landscape for the worse".
Another parish council said that while the built up bank of soil is protecting Ms Beeny and Mr Swift from noise, it is having the opposite effect on their neighbours.
"The height and shape of the earth bank...is having the effect of reflecting traffic noise back towards [them], adversely affecting the residents’ living condition," they said.
Two local residents said the noise on their property was "intolerable" and claimed their neighbours had acted for "purely selfish reasons".
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Another local said they had "dumped the spoils on good agricultural land and [are] trying to find a way out of a problem they have created… this should have had planning or [they should have] paid for the removal of spoils".
Ms Beeny declined to comment.
