Corrie Sally f ights them on the cobbles
Soap star’s row with top grammar school over sports hall by £2m home
CORONATION Street actress Sally Dynevor is embroiled in a row with one of the country’s most prestigious grammar schools over claims that building work is ‘damaging’ her £2million mansion.
The star and her scriptwriter husband, Tim, were among more than 30 neighbours who opposed the construction of a new sports hall at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, whose grounds border their property in the village of Bowdon, Cheshire.
Locals said the 32ft tall timber-clad building resembled a ‘grossly unattractive commercial warehouse’ and claimed it would block light to their gardens, worsen parking issues and ‘destroy the tranquillity’ of the community, which sits in the Devisdale and Bowdon Conservation Areas.
Despite such concerns – and opposition from local civic and conservation groups – Trafford Council passed the plans in October.
Ground work has since begun for the hall, which is being built on the school’s existing sixth-form site, half a mile from the main school.
It includes four indoor badminton courts, changing rooms and the reconfiguration of existing tennis courts for pupil and public use at weekends.
But Mrs Dynevor, who this week received an MBE in the new year honours for services to drama, claims problems have already emerged.
Earlier this month she tweeted the school and its contractors, saying: ‘ Your building foundation work is causing damage to our house and to our neighbours. We’ve contacted you numerous times alerting you [to] this but after a week we still have had no visit from you or any direct response to our emails.’
Mrs Dynevor claimed residents had asked builders to carry out a pre-works survey but they had refused.
Last night Mrs Dynevor, whose daughter Phoebe, 25, stars in Netflix hit Bridgerton, declined to elaborate on the problems when contacted by the Daily Mail, saying neighbours were now in ‘negotiations’ with the builders.
It is understood they are concerned about possible cosmetic damage to their threestorey Victorian homes and gardens. In a 2019 letter opposing the initial application, Mr Dynevor said the hall would ‘block sunlight to our house’ and that ball games in the hall ‘would destroy the tranquillity we currently enjoy’.
Although council officials agreed the hall was ‘at odds’ with the ‘fine, historic, urban grain’ of the properties, they passed the application to let the school teach more sports.
Last night the school, which in August was named the eighth best grammar for GCSE and A-level results in the country, declined to comment.