Planners object to her builder using cement for renovation at cliff top home
DAME Helen Mirren’s plans for a dream home overlooking the sea in Italy hit a brick wall after officials stepped in.
Planners accused her of using cement to rebuild a traditional drystone garden wall.
The Oscar-winning actress bought a cliff-top house in Torre Nasparo in Puglia after spotting it while on holiday with her husband, film director Taylor Hackford.
The two-bedroom house was little more than a shack when it became theirs in December. But, in the heel of Italy, it has good views of the Adriatic with steep terraces of olive groves leading down to a secluded cove.
The couple were planning to spend about £250,000 on restoring the house, which is within a national park, and use it as a seaside getaway. They also own a 500-year-old farmhouse 10 miles away in Tiggiano, Puglia.
Mirren, 73, who won an Oscar for Best Actress in 2007 for The Queen, has been accused of violating building regulations and “disfiguring the natural beauty” of the area.
She has allegedly replaced crumbling dry stone walls surrounding the terraces with larger ones reinforced by cement – which is not allowed.
Following an anonymous complaint to a local magistrate, construction stopped on the property and prosecutors opened an investigation.
Police are looking into allegations including illegal construction and carrying out renovation works without the appropriate permits.
“Helen saw the house while out at sea and fell in love with it,” said her lawyer, Pietro Nuccio. “She wants to use it for private swimming, since the rocks are rather inaccessible to the public.”
He added that the old walls had been crumbling and the builder had needed to increase the height to prevent landslides.
“We are talking to the magistrate and we have said that if we broke the rules we will take out the walls,” said Mr Nuccio.
“They should give Helen a prize because no one else here is spending on costly dry-stone walling to protect terracing.”
It is not the first time Mirren has clashed with the neighbours. In 2012 she was involved in a spat with the woman next door over her plans to renovate the house in Tiggiano.
She was not accused of any wrongdoing and her spokesman at the time described the dispute as “very petty” and a “complete waste of time”.
But the actress is appreciated by some in her new home. In August last year she was praised for lending her support to a campaign to save ancient olive trees in the region threatened by a deadly plant bacteria.