Headache over as TV’s Sue wins battle to raise roof at £1m home
TV presenter and former tennis star Sue Barker has won a fight to raise the height of her £1million country home – so her husband stops banging his head on the bedroom ceiling.
She wanted to solve the painful problem by rebuilding their idyllic Cotswolds cottage.
Neighbours in the picture postcard village of Stanton, including a former High Court judge, cried fault. They insisted that the change would spoil the area and block out their light.
Limbo
But their volley of protests has been dismissed after the plans to make it 5ft higher were given the go-ahead by the council in Gloucestershire.
Former French Open champion Sue, 61, is 5ft 4in but her former policeman husband Lance Tankard is over 6ft tall.
Mr Tankard, 59, said he had once knocked himself out and had also cut his head on ceiling valley blade beams.
He revealed the difficulties in navigating the master bedroom and adjoining dressing room in a letter to Tewkesbury Council.
He wrote: “There are several pinch points that are downright dangerous where the valleys meet to the rear. I once knocked myself clean out and twice cut my head. I can only place a small chest of drawers in these areas and then limbo dance up towards them if I want to open a drawer.”
His representative told the council: “After many years his head still has an affinity for the low valley blades of the roof.”
The council was also asked to grant retrospective permission for an extension to the property.
Stanton Parish Council objected to the plans along with neighbours including retired High Court judge Sir Richard Tucker.
He said proposed alterations to the height and appearance of the property would make it “a focal point that would be in contrast to the character of High Street as represented by its traditional architecture and materials”.
He added: “The window to which I object would be a gross intrusion into the privacy of my garden for which there cannot be any justification.”
Sue, who presents A Question of Sport on BBC, bought the property with Lance in 2007.
The couple married in 1988. She was previously romantically linked to pop singer Sir Cliff Richard and the golfer Greg Norman.