Tower restored with lottery cash is up for sale at £1.6m

THE owner of a Grade I listed tower restored with public money has prompted renewed anger after putting it up for sale for a second time, despite claiming he would give it away in a raffle.

More than £3 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on the restoration of Hadlow Tower in Tonbridge, Kent. At 170ft (52m), it is considered the tallest of its kind in the world.

Christian Tym, a tax accountant and former banker, snapped up the gothic folly for £425,000 in 2017 and put it up for sale for £2million a year later.

When that failed, he took it off the market and made it the prize in a competition in 2018, selling tickets at £4.50.

Now, having sold an undisclosed number of tickets, he has abandoned the plan and put it back up for sale, for £1.6 million. Members of the Save Hadlow Tower Action Group, which fought to get the tower restored after it was damaged in the Great Storm of 1987 following years of neglect, said they were furious. Caroline Anderson, its former chairman, alleged the owner was only interested in making money.

She said: “For 17 years I was involved in the restoration of that tower and people put in a lot of hard work. It should not be in private ownership. It’s a Grade I listed monument and should be for the public to enjoy.”

The competition small print revealed Mr Tym would hand over the property only if he sold at least 800,000 tickets, which could have netted him £3.6million. He insisted this was not “a rich man trying to sell a property” and that five per cent of the proceeds would go to charity. A weekly draw gave one ticket holder two nights in the tower, said to be worth £2,000.

Mr Tym did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.