Lotto winner given go-ahead for homes
Locals’ warnings over flooding rejected by council
EUROMILLIONS winner Gillian Bayford-Deans has won permission to build six houses, despite flood warnings from worried residents.
Councillors backed her application for land next to Pitkerro Mill, in Dundee, after a heated debate at the city council’s planning committee.
Homeowners objecting to the proposal had to be repeatedly told not to interrupt proceedings on Monday.
Flood victim Joyce McGuinness, who has lived nearby for 30 years, pleaded with councillors to take into account the area’s recent history of flooding.
She said: ‘You want to put more families into that. You’re not going to stop the flooding.
‘It doesn’t make any sense to me. None of you have looked at the history – no one has.’
The area has been flooded a number times over the years, most notably in 2009. Miss McGuinness said her home had been affected seven times in the past decade.
Mrs Bayford-Deans, 47, who shared a £148million lottery jackpot with her then-husband Adrian in 2012, asked councillors to relax conditions on her application after a report found reinstating a wall and retaining bund embankments on the river would reduce the risk of flooding.
Councillors agreed to amend conditions on a previously approved application to build the homes between Kellas Road and Fithie Burn. The site encompasses an
‘No one has looked at the history’
area near the C-listed mill, as well as Drumsturdy pond and the streams that once powered it.
After more than an hour of deliberation, members agreed to approve the application, subject to 19 conditions. The process included a short recess during which one of the conditions was rewritten by planning officers to specify that flood prevention repairs must be completed before any work on the houses can begin.
Mrs Bayford-Deans also owns Chesterhill House in New-port-on-Tay, Fife, which is being sold for a cut-price fee.
She split from her husband 15 months after they won the jackpot. The couple cited the ‘pressures’ of their sudden wealth as the reason for the break-up of their nine-year marriage.
The Bayfords decided to go public with their win because they did not think they could give money away and expect people to be quiet about it. Mrs Bayford quit her job as a healthcare assistant on a children’s ward at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.
The mother of two then moved from Suffolk and bought a home on the outskirts of her home city of Dundee. Mr Bayford sold a waterfront property in Newport-on-Tay to her in 2017 for £625,000.
She moved into it with Alan Warnock, the car salesman who sold her five Audis worth £260,000.
The pair formed A&G Properties Scotland and bought a string of residential properties in Angus.
Mr Warnock has since resigned as a director of the company.
Last August she married 38-yearold Brian Deans.