Planning Problems

Even the best of us can have planning problems as reported recently in the daily mail Tony Blair is having problems with planning for his new SwimSpa see exert for Daily Mail Below

The Blairs are in hot water after taking delivery of a Riptide pro-exercise pool without checking to see if they have planning permission

Inquiries by the Daily Mail show that the previous owner of the house did secure planning permission for a pool – but only after an arduous two years of negotiations with Aylesbury district council.

And it would have been a completely different type of construction from the Blairs’ exercise toy. The original plans, finally authorised just weeks before the Blairs moved in earlier this year, bent over backwards to reassure council historians that the 18th-century character of the property and gardens would be maintained.

But the Blairs’ new exercise pool belongs very much to the 21st century.

Costing £28,950, the Riptide Trident PRO exercise pool, 20ft by 8ft, is encased in stainless steel, thermal plastic and foam, and its wave jets pump out 3,500 gallons of water a minute.

Workers deliver the pool this week over the Blair’s wall

The council’s head of planning, told the Daily Mail  that the Blairs’ pool was under investigation.

‘The planning permission and Grade I listed building consent are for a specific scheme as detailed on the drawings accompanying the applications,’ he said.

‘We are discussing compliance with these conditions with the architects involved and checking for ourselves what is actually taking place on the site.

‘Should any breach of planning controls become apparent we will resolve them in the same way as for any other development.’

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.