Five breath-taking luxury mansions each worth a whopping £1million have been reduced to rubble after they were built in breach of planning regulations.
Built on the beautiful West Pennine moors in Lancashire, four of the staggering six-bedroom properties have now been demolished, with the final property soon to be a distant memory.
In 2016, building inspectors discovered the almost-complete properties were up to a third bigger than they should be, and in different locations than was permitted.
Bolton Council initially ordered their demolition in 2018, but legal wrangling and pleas from homeowners meant the bulldozers didn’t move in until May last year.
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Recent photos of the site now show the grand mansions reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble, with only one left standing.
Cllr Andy Morgan said: “Four of the five houses have now come down. It's the right thing to do.
“There are two applications for individual plots to be built with slight alterations. The intent is to rebuild them and save so much materials, brick by brick.”
Building work began on the homes in 2014, when planning permission was granted for the conversion of a former farmhouse and four new homes around a central courtyard.
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The exclusive stone-built homes were swiftly constructed on a sprawling plot near Bolton.
However, difficulties ensued after a complaint was filed in October 2016, stating that the houses were not being built in accordance with the planning permission.
An inquiry heard how plot one on the site had a 31 percent bigger footprint than allowed, plot two was 19 percent bigger, plot three 32 percent bigger and plot four 33 percent bigger.
In 2018, Sparkle Developments found themselves faced with an enforcement notice to flatten the entire development.
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However, an appeal was soon pushed through, claiming the enforcement notice was excessive and too harsh to remedy any breach in planning regulations.
Despite this, council inspectors decided on a deadline of May 18, 2022, for all the mansions to be demolished.
One of the previous homeowners, Elan Raja, told an earlier hearing that he had paid £1,057,000 for the plot in 2016.
He also claimed he had since spent more than £215,000 on the rental of an alternative property and other costs.
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He said he had suffered from severe stress and anxiety due to coping with the immense demands of the legal case and had suffered cardiac problems as a result of the ‘nightmare’ situation.
A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “We will of course continue to monitor the site in the coming weeks to ensure that the requirements of the enforcement notice are complied with in full.”
Abbi Murray