Rupert Grint is planning on turning some land he owns into affordable, eco-friendly housing, but some locals have taken against the idea.
The Harry Potter star wants to build nine new homes on the Kimpton Grange estate in Hertfordshire, which he bought for £5.4 million back in 2009.
The actor tried to sell the place off back in 2018, but he is still the current owner of the land and is instead attempting to do something else with it now.
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An application for planning permission on the North Hertfordshire council site says Grint is intending to renovate an existing building, The Lodge, into six apartments, while building four terraced houses and a further five detached homes.
The newly built homes are intended to be built with solar panels to generate power and heat pumps to make the dwellings more energy efficient.
Grint has even offered locals some freebies such as extra land for gardens in the hopes that this will make them more welcoming to the idea of new houses being built in the area, but some aren't happy at all.
Commenting on the North Hertfordshire Council website, a number of neighbours have criticised the building plans.
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One of the biggest concerns people had about the plans were over the fate of mature trees on the land, which could need to be cut down to make way for the new houses being built.
Among those writing in to object was Dalia Wyatt, who said she would be 'potentially gifted a small garden' if the plans went ahead.
Like many others who wrote in to complain, she was worried about the 'removal of the trees where the affordable housing would go' and said this would 'irrevocably change this historic area'.
She said she was 'horrified' by plans showing off the new view if the project went ahead, and wrote that she had 'severe misgivings' about promises that some land would be given over to make a nature reserve, arguing that there was 'no guarantee' this promise would be kept.
Nigel Dowse said he would 'object strongly' to the development, arguing that it was building on the green belt and therefore shouldn't go ahead unless there were 'very special circumstances', which he did not believe there were.
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He also mentioned the freebies potentially being handed out to locals and said he didn't 'consider this gift to be one worth accepting'.
John Pepper called the gifting of land to locals a 'cynical device to encourage planning consent'.
Of the comments made by locals on the proposed development the vast majority were from people who said they opposed the plans, with only a couple being either neutral or supportive.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust have also raised objections, despite plans indicating the development will boost biodiversity in the area.
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Planning and biodiversity manager Matt Dodds said the plan 'needs to supply the full biodiversity, not a metric'.
However, there was some support for the idea, as Paul Hunter wrote that 'a considerable amount of time, work and effort has been made' in order to put together an 'exciting new area'.
Claiming to be 'one of the people most affected by the development', he said he would 'fully support it' and noted that the building plans were both 'sympathetic to the environment' and intended to be affordable housing.
Even among those objecting to the planned building of nine new houses, there were few complaints about the idea of converting The Lodge into six apartments.
LADbible have contacted Rupert Grint's representatives for comment.
Topics: Harry Potter, Celebrity, UK News
Joe Harker