Top Boy star Ashley Walters is involved in a planning row over plans to extend his home. He also wants to build a swimming pool, cinema and gym in his back garden.
The actor, who plays drug kingpin Dushane in the hit Netflix drama, lives in a bungalow in Bullockstone, near Herne Bay in Kent. The “frustrated” 41-year-old has had two applications to extend his chalet bungalow snubbed by Canterbury City Council planning officers.
READ MORE: BBC Breakfast Jon Kay takes brutal swipe at Gethin Jones as Morning Live star urged to ‘behave’
READ MORE: Want more TV? Daily Star has just the thing for you!
Speaking at his million-pound property yesterday, Walters said he will look for a new home with his wife and two children if his plans fail to get the green light.
The former member of garage group So Solid Crew, who topped the charts with 21 Seconds, said: “It’s highly likely that if we can’t get it the way we want to, we’ll have to move out of this part of Kent.
“I’m a big fan of Kent and this part of it. Our kids are settled in school here, so it’s not like we’ll be going back to London. We would just have to find somewhere else locally that suits our needs.”
The father-of-eight mentioned the planning battle in an interview with Louis Theroux which aired on BBC Two on Tuesday night. On the show, Theroux commented: “You mentioned there was a planning application war?”
To which Walters replied: “There was, yeah. We’ve appealed and we are going to try to go to committee. And, I guess after that, it’s moving really.”
The BBC journalist then joked: “I thought you were going to say something else,” but Walters, who was jailed in 2002 for 18 months after carrying a loaded pistol that had been modified to fire live ammunition, laughed: “No, not anymore – I’m a changed man.”
The planning applications were submitted in March and May this year. The first was for two-storey front and rear extensions. The second was for a two-storey front extension and a single-storey rear extension, including a balcony to the rear.
Walters, who according to Rightmove bought the home in 2021 for £815,000, said: “I think the planned design of the property we want to build doesn’t fit in with what they’d like for the street view.”
But he is irked by the fact that the city council recently approved 160 new homes on farmland opposite his house, despite objections from neighbours. “It is frustrating knowing that the area is forever changing,” he said.
“There’s a lot of properties being built up across the road, which is going to change the street view for good anyway. We’ve appealed twice. We’ve put in planning permission twice and been rejected. We’ve had a pre-application meeting, which didn’t get us anywhere.
“So, we’re waiting for another appeal at the moment, and then we just have to review what we’re going to do after that. Despite the rejections, Walters has had “good communication” with the city council and has followed “all the proper procedures”.
He added: “The swimming pool and stuff in the back is not the thing that’s being contested. It’s the main property. It would all be permitted by planning because of the size of the buildings and where it’s situated.”
The Bulletproof star says he wants to extend his home as his two daughters are getting taller. “It’s about making it slightly bigger in height because it’s a bungalow conversion,” he explained.
“The top floor is essentially in the roof, which means you’re kind of ducking and as the kids grow they’ll be banging heads on the ceiling. So we are just trying to make that a bit higher.”
On refusing the changes to the house, city council officers said: “The resulting dwelling would be an overly prominent form of development relating poorly to the small-scale character of the neighbours.
“The proposed extensions relate poorly with the existing property and as such the overall development would fail to have sufficient regard for the context and character of the site.”
Council communications officer Robert Davies added: “The most recent application was refused on the grounds that its scale, form, design, appearance and prominence would relate poorly to the design of the existing building and would appear as an incongruous addition to the host property.
“It would also harm the visual quality of the street scene and the character and appearance of the area contrary to policies DBE3 and DBE6 of the Canterbury District Local Plan 2017 and Paragraph 130 of the National Planning Policy Framework.
“The applicant has appealed this decision as is their right and this matter will now be considered by the independent Planning Inspectorate.”
He has previously told of the warm welcome he received when he arrived in Bullockstone. “As soon as we moved in, we had cakes being brought to the door,” Walters said.
“After a storm [they were] checking that we’re OK: ‘We noticed your gate’s blown off, do you want us to help you fix it?'”For us, it was like ‘what do they want?’ because you are just so not used to that in London.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
