JENNIFER Saunders and Adrian Edmondson have been locked in a year-long battle over an extension to their £2million country mansion.
Celebrity couple Ade Edmondson and Jennifer Saunders are facing a fresh planning battle over the £250,000 extension of their historic Dartmoor home.
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The Absolutely Fabulous and Bottom stars bought the country retreat to enjoy rural life and said they plan to move there full time.
The pair – who currently split time between a London townhouse and their Devon home – want to carry out a raft of landscaping and construction works to the property.
They had previously been granted planning permission last year to create a new entrance and parking area, extend a workshop, create a terrace and move a existing greenhouse.
They also want to replace a window, build a new garden pavilion and install air source heat pumps and a solar array.
Permission was granted with conditions attached, but the couple have now applied for several of these to be “discharged”.
This includes the requirement to remove a external staircase and first floor door in their entirety within a year of the original permission and installing the first floor window shown in plans within the same timescale.
The couple also want to remove the stipulation that details of the “new replacement painted timber door” should be submitted and approved in writing by planners.
The planning application, that is currently under consideration by Dartmoor National Park Authority, also seeks to remove a third condition that details of how and where Air Source Heat Pumps will be installed is approved in advance.
In documents to support the original application, their representatives wrote: “Jennifer and Adrian have lived at Teigncombe Manor for over 30 years.
“Their work has meant that the couple splits their time between London and Devon.
“However, Jennifer and Adrian anticipate in the coming years reducing the amount of time spent away from home in and living full time at Teigncombe Manor.
“They wish to make some sensitive alterations to the existing outbuildings in order to better suit their current needs and lifestyles.”
But building conservation officer Clare Vint for the Dartmoor National Park Authority, had raised concerns and wrote in her report: “As the application currently stands the impact of the proposals on the significance of the listed buildings and their setting has not been minimised.
“There is also insufficient justification for the works and minimal public benefit.”
The council report states the settlement on the site predates the Doomsday Book of 1086 formerly known as Taincoma and the 16th century Manor House is grade II listed.
Ms Vint added: “The interior and exterior of the building are of high significance architecturally, historically and archaeologically.”
She said the air source heat pump and relocated oil tank would need to be screened to minimise the visual impact while an “associated concrete slab” needed to be minimised to avoid a physical impact on the foundations of the listed building.
She said the entrance walling, location and size of vehicle access “should not be altered” while warning building a paved area would “interrupt the relationship between the stables (cottage) building and the house.”
She added: ” The change in topography to create the car pergola, with its stark raised eastern wall, glazed balustrade, with vehicles visible at high level when viewed from the south east will cause harm to the setting of the cottage, the setting of the house and the overall relationship between them.
“When coupled with the open car port frame (pergola) the negative impact is increased (irrespective of whether this is covered in vegetation in time).”
Plans for the degree of negative impact of the solar panels can only be fully assessed with details of the amount of vegetation that would need to be removed, she added.
Ms Vent also recommended a number of amendments to minimise the impact on the building.
These included painting external stairs black to reduce their visibility and screening the air source heat pump or potentially relocating it to a less visible location.
She also recommended minimising the ‘negative impact’ on the garden pavilion through a ‘reduction in overall height, depth and width, and a more lightweight structure.”
Teigncombe Manor, the site of a mediaeval settlement and the Domesday manor of Taincoma, has a rich history.
The manor, referred to as South Teign in historical documents, was likely a rest house on Mariner’s Path during the Middle Ages.
The current structure of Teigncombe Manor is a former Dartmoor longhouse refurbished in the mid-20th century. The cottage range of buildings dates to between the 1880s and 1905, with refurbishments carried out by the current client following a successful planning application in 1995.
The application on behalf of the celebrity couple stated “Some works within the listed curtilage of the cottage were previously undertaken without consent.
“This application seeks to regularise those works, with no structural alterations proposed within the cottage.”
A decision on the application to remove the conditions will be made at a later date.
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