Theakston in furious row over ‘beds-insheds’ claim
AS THE urbane captain of a rural cricket club and a keen fencer who once worked for Christie’s auction house, Jamie Theakston is seen as a quintessentially middle-class broadcaster.
Yet, I hear, the actor and presenter has been accused of trying to create the sort of substandard housing found in some of London’s most down-at-heel districts.
The accusation comes from neighbours in his wealthy corner of West London, where his application to build a trendy outhouse in his back garden has been rejected by planners after it was labelled an attempt to create a ‘beds-in-sheds style facility’.
Theakston, who co-hosts Heart FM’s Breakfast show with Amanda Holden, submitted plans for a garden-flat style outbuilding with gym in the back garden of his 19th-century £6.5 million home in Chiswick, an area favoured by famous faces including Ant and Dec, and actor David Tennant.
However, Hounslow council officers have rejected the plan after a stream of objections from neighbours on the basis that the proposal was ‘excessive in size’ and ‘harmful to the wider conservation area’.
Development chiefs also backed the view of one neighbour who suggested that Theakston (pictured with wife Sophie Siegle) might try to convert the outhouse into a ‘self-contained independent dwelling’ in the future. In comments posted on the council’s website, one resident complained: ‘By including a bathroom and kitchen, this application has been designed in such a way that it facilitates future use as a beds-insheds facility.’ Others complained about 51-year-old Theakston’s plan to cover the outhouse in upmarket Japanesestyle charred timber cladding — deemed at odds with the area’s Victorian properties. A neighbour wrote: ‘The design is not in keeping with adjacent properties nor does it complement or improve the streetscape in a sympathetic fashion.
‘It is unclear how the blackened wood appearance is in keeping with the yellow or red brick materials used in the construction of the houses.’
The former Top Of The Pops host’s latest attempt to develop his property comes after he won a bitter planning battle in 2018 to build a four-bedroom house at the bottom of his 120ft garden in the face of opposition from his neighbour, theatre producer Michael Attenborough.