When millionaire neighbours go to war
Residents led by David Attenborough’s nephew fought Jamie Theakston’s plan to build in his garden. As Attenborough reveals, it’s now all come to a toxic end
ENJOYING a summer’s lunch in the back garden of his nephew’s London home, David Attenborough surveyed the scene with an eye that has earned him a reputation as one of the world’s leading naturalists.
While the vista may have lacked the drama of the open oceans and wildernesses that are his normal hunting grounds, the canopy of trees and greenery lent the scene an undeniable beauty and charm.
‘Isn’t this lovely?’ the 91-year-old enthused to the gathered guests.
But his sense of contentment did not last long. To his horror, Michael Attenborough, son of David’s late brother Richard, the famous actor and filmmaker, informed him that moves were afoot that would see this corner of London changed for ever. Plans had been submitted by his nextdoor neighbour to erect a fourbedroom house in his back garden, he revealed.
Not only would it sit just yards away from the home in which Michael Attenborough and his wife had lived for almost 30 years, but it would also involve the felling of eight trees that bordered it. This, despite the fact that the properties sit in a conservation area established to protect the character of this leafy Victorian suburb in Chiswick, London.
‘I am unapologetically proud to be part of the Attenborough family that strives, as we all do, to protect and conserve our environment,’ said Mr Attenborough, 68, a former theatre director who now teaches at drama school Rada.
‘I remember last summer listening to my uncle lavish praise on such a beautiful, peaceful area, and his admiration for the borough that has protected it, and then watching his face fall in shock when I told him there was a high possibility of it being swept away to make way for yet more bricks and mortar.’
And the illustrious family is not alone in sharing that dismay. Many neighbours in this well-to-do street, where properties are worth an average £2 million (€2.3million), joined forces to fight the proposed development.
In one letter to council planners, a resident claimed the worry caused by the proposed development was making them ill.
Another described it as a ‘tragedy’ and an act of ‘cultural vandalism’, while others directed their anger at the man behind the plans – accusing him of being an ‘assetstripper’ trying to ‘shoe-horn’ a ‘grossly excessive’ development into a corner of his garden. ‘In a crowded and over-polluted neighbourhood the applicant seeks to cut down trees and increase density for nothing but personal gain,’ another wrote.
It continued: ‘This is no effort to address the housing shortage in London, no attempt to provide affordable housing, but instead an attempt to build a multi-millionpound property within the grounds of a property that was recently advertised for sale at £6.5 million.’
So who is the, clearly, verywealthy individual at whom such ire is directed? Step forward Jamie Theakston, the TV host and radio DJ who made his name as a presenter on Live & Kicking and Top Of The Pops and who currently fronts a breakfast show on independent radio station Heart FM.
WHAT fewer people may know, however, is Theakston has also had financial success as a property developer. Indeed, as the Mail reveals today, having started off 25 years ago in a £58,000 flat ‘too small to swing a cat in’, he has now a property portfolio worth some £10 million.
In that time he has owned multiple flats and houses, including investment properties and increasingly grand family homes that he has renovated before selling on for a healthy profit.
Today, as well as his £6.5million family home, he owns a 50% stake in a property development company that last year purchased a £1.5million home in London. It is currently being enlarged – no doubt with an eye to selling on with an inflated price tag.
And now he can add another £2.5million home to his property empire. Because at a meeting on Thursday night, Hounslow Borough Council ignored the protests of the Attenboroughs and their neighbours and granted planning permission for the development in his garden.
The planning committee granted Theakston approval to build, ruling that it would neither damage ‘the character and appearance’ of the desirable area nor cause ‘harm’ to neighbours’ living conditions.
The loss of the eight trees was deemed ‘acceptable’ as the majority were not widely visible across the conservation area.
Mr Theakston was not present for the decision. But Mr Attenborough was. And, speaking afterwards, he said he felt it left him and his wife Karen with no choice but to put the house in which they raised their two chil- dren on the market and move out. ‘It feels very cruel to us to lose our home for somebody’s profit – it’s tough,’ he said.
JAMIE’S trying to make a great deal of money thank you very much. He actually laid out the sums for me. He was very honest about it. But as my uncle David would say, you lose these places and they don’t come back, they are irreplaceable. You have to take a stand and say greenery is important, gardens are important, biodiversity is important.’
Of course, while elements of this battle over a garden in a leafy London enclave are unique, they will also strike a chord with people in Ireland. The case has echoes of the Battle of Rathmines that saw Brian O’Driscoll and wife Amy Huberman emerge victorious in a long-running planning stand-off with their next-door neighbours over the upgrade of their new south Dublin home.
An Bord Pleanála last month gave BOD and Amy the go-ahead to proceed with the revamp of their €1.8million dream home on Palmerston Road, Rathmines.
Neighbours Donald and Isabel Fitzmaurice had lodged an appeal against the decision to extend the property but failed, allowing the golden couple to start building.
Many will sympathise with the Attenboroughs and their neighbours, desperate to enjoy their homes and to protect the environment. Why should someone be able to plonk a house right next door to them, blocking the light and changing the outlook for ever?
But others, no doubt, will side with Mr Theakston. Why shouldn’t he be able to do what he likes with his own garden? they will ask.
Some will also accuse his neighbours of being Nimbys – unwilling to share the joys of living in a neighbourhood where homes such as theirs can fetch more than £2million. They may also claim
the planning system gives far too much weight to those wishing to block the developments. Given his experience with his current home, it is a view Theakston will have some sympathy with. He has spent the last eight years wrangling with the local council, and fielding complaints from neighbours, over renovations to the five-bedroom detached property.
According to land registry records, he and his wife Sophie purchased the house in July 2010 for £3.85 million.
Within months, he had lodged an application to demolish extensions and replace them with a large modern extension the width of the house. But neighbours complained that the work would damage nearby trees and would also result in the loss of ‘unique’ aspects of the house. The council subsequently refused the application on the grounds that it was not in keeping with the conservation area and would not ‘preserve or enhance the area’.
Theakston appealed and in April 2011 the decision was overturned by a planning inspector. Speaking of his experience afterwards, he said: ‘The whole process was just ridiculous.’
The extension was duly built – its sleek lines since featuring in glossy interiors magazines as well as on ITV’s Through The Keyhole.
With the work completed, in 2013 Theakston put the double-fronted house up for sale at £6.5 million.
But with no takers, the couple, who have two sons, took it off the market and submitted a new planning application to build a swimming pool and gym at the end of the garden nearest to the Attenboroughs.
Again multiple objections were lodged. The council refused the application. Again, the reason given was the impact on the conservation area and the impact on neighbouring properties.
Rather than appeal against that decision, in June last year, Theakston, 47, submitted new plans for a twostorey family house to be built alongside the Attenboroughs. It was to have four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a utility area and bike storage. It would be designed to mirror the Attenboroughs’ semi.
Because of its highly favourable location – local residents include Ant and Dec, former Doctor Who David Tennant and TV presenter Clare Balding – once completed it would be worth upwards of £2.5million.
The council received a total of 26 objections. ‘This is not against anyone making a profit,’ one resident told the Mail. ‘But this £2.5million house will not give anything back to the community. He is just assetstripping his house. Then he’ll sell it and move away. That is why people mind, they are upset.’
Another said: ‘By pushing this application through, all the council is doing is putting a load of cash in a rich guy’s pocket.’
Indeed, while Theakston has forged a successful career in broadcasting, there can be no doubt that he has also benefited from shrewd property investments. As well as his own millions in profits from buying and selling property, Theakston is a director and shareholder in a property development firm.
According to his firm’s website the company is responsible for creating ‘some of the most desirable homes in West London’ over the past decade.
With emotions running high in the wake of the council’s decision to grant permission for the new-build house, Theakston yesterday declined to speak with the Mail.
So, over to Mr Attenborough for the last word. ‘We fought Jamie’s gym proposal for 18 months and we have fought this for a year,’ he said.
‘So about two-and-a-half years in total, fighting Jamie Theakston’s ambitions to make money.
‘At the end of it the council have voted us out of our home and for the savaging of a conservation area as if it was nothing.
‘I’ve always contended that one of the most emotional words in the English language is the word “home”.
‘You put roots down. And now we have to wrench them out.’