‘My neighbours hate me… but I don’t care!’: Woman at war with whole village over her ‘HS2 tunnel’ house wins bitter planning battle

A farmer whose controversial new Teletubby-style eco home caused her own tight-knit village to ostracize her for ‘bringing HS2’ to their idyll has finally won her planning battle, saying: ‘It’s a bit like Putin and Ukraine – we should have just had a talk.’

Defiant June Titterton-Fox has been granted retrospective permission to continue building her dream house in an idyllic village in Rutland which juts out of a hill in much the same way a piece of tunneling from the cursed infrastructure project does. 

However this has come with the fury of some neighbours who say the ‘out of place’ property looks ‘absolutely horrible’ and should never have been allowed.

During a recent council meeting – where planners voted in favour of the scheme with one objection and one abstention – it was revealed that Mrs Titterton-Fox had breached rules and built it bigger than she had been granted permission for.

But instead of launching ‘enforcing action against her,’ officers from Rutland County Council – where the rare breeds farmer was a former councillor – worked with her to seek a resolution.

This month jubilant Mrs Titterton-Fox, 65, speaking from her smallholding in posh Whitwell in The Midlands, told MailOnline: ‘I’ve got retrospective planning permission and I am really pleased.

‘But it could have been so much better if people in the village, who objected to what I am doing, had spoken directly to me instead of holding secret meetings and not inviting me.’

She said the long-running fight with some of her neighbours, whom she had previously counted as close friends and socialised with and branded ‘just vicious, horrible people,’ had taken its toll on her health and she has lost two stone in weight because of ‘all the stress.’

A farmer whose controversial new Teletubby-style eco home caused her own tight-knit village to ostracize her has claimed victory

The idyllic village of Rutland was up in arms over the plans which they said were ‘unacceptable’ 

June Titterton-Fox (seen in 2022),said: ‘It’s a bit like Putin and Ukraine – we should have just had a talk.’

As she was nursing a poorly lamb and awaiting a vet’s visit, she said: ‘It’s victory for me but it’s a shame it’s has taken so long and caused so much aggravation.

‘I’ve won the war but it should have been finished a lot sooner. It’s a bit like Putin and Ukraine, if we had just sat down and talked, me and those objecting neighbours, we could have found a solution a lot quicker.

‘There’s only 25 houses here and half are on the warpath!’

Fellow residents in the tiny village – which is twinned with Paris and has two dozen homes – have been divided over the £800,000 three-bedroom home set into a hillside of a six-acre field she owns.

She had applied for planning content in 2020 and claimed her unique property Field House would be one of the most energy-efficient properties in Britain.

But the plans faced opposition from villagers who said the ‘garish Hobbit house’ looked ‘more like something from Teletubby Land’, and planners refused the application for the single-storey home in 2021.

Council officers said the development was ‘unacceptable’ and would be ‘visually intrusive and impact adversely on the form and character of the area’.

But Mrs Titterton-Fox appealed, and Planning Inspector Dominic Young, clearly impressed by her plans, ruled: ‘The state-of-the-art property has been carefully and sensitively designed to the most exacting environmental standards.’

He added: ‘Given the dwelling would be built into the hillside with no part of its structure protruding above the natural topography – it would have very little impact,’ adding that the design had the ‘wow factor.’

Defiant June Titterton-Fox has been granted retrospective permission to continue building her dream house

Villagers say the ugly property has destroyed the rural charm of the area and looks like HS2

Having cleared one hurdle Mrs Titterton-Fox then faced further obstacles as locals complained she had breach regulations, building the property 1.2 metres higher than approved, adding two extra rooms at each end to be used as an ensuite bathroom and a plant room, and changing the frosted widows size and design,

Councillor Kiloran told the recent meeting: ‘Residents contacted enforcement because the building did not look like the plans approved on appeal.

‘It had an impact on locals living nearby and has impact on heritage.’

She urged: ‘This application should be rejected for Rutland and for the country. It certainly lacks the wow factor and is in breach of planning.’

Retired publican Julie Healey, who has lived in the desirable village for decades, believes the eco house – which is yet to be screened and landscaped – ‘looks out of place’ and is ‘absolutely horrible.’

The great grandmother added: ‘I cannot believe this has been allowed to happen in a village like this.

‘I can only see the house from one bedroom and my paddock so it is not too bad for me but a few of my neighbours overlook it directly and the occupants will be able to look into their bedrooms.’

Widowed Mrs Healey, 86, who used to run the next Noel pub with her late husband for 18 years until 1997, told how the eco home had ‘spilt the village.’

She said: ‘People on my side are against it because it is right ion front of them but those on the other side of the road are not so concerned.’

She said she and fellow villagers ‘always used to socialise’ with Mrs Titterton-Fox and her husband Andrew but don’t now, saying: ‘It has caused a rift and I rarely see her now.’

Retired publican Julie Healey has lived in the village for years and believes the house is ‘out of place’

Simon and Beverley Jackson, whose home overlooks the distinctive build likened to the famous pre-school children’s TV show, claims the windows face directly into their bedroom and bathroom, destroying their privacy.

Mrs Jackson, a semi-retired MD of a legal services firm, said: ‘It is an eyesore and when people move in it will be even more so!

‘But at the end of the day she’s won and we have to live with it. I thought it would go that way, in her favour.

‘She used to be a local councillor and she has a few friends there.

‘We’re not happy but we fought our case and she won. It is what it is and there’s nothing we can really do.

‘Getting retrospective planning permission is the final straw.’

She said it was too early to say if residents would challenge the decision as they would need to spend ‘lots more money’ seeking a judicial review.

Devastated Mrs Jackson, who now feels like selling up her beautiful £1.2 million home, a converted farm grain store, said: ‘It is a massive intrusion. It was meant to be built into sunken hollow ground but it sticks out like a sore thumb, and it is farcical.

‘I hate living here now. I wake up every morning and see that monstrosity staring back at me from my bed.

‘I go to my ensuite to take a shower and I see it, I go to my dressing and make-up room to get ready for work and I see it. ‘I go downstairs to my kitchen and lounge and I still see it. It is horrendous.’

‘No one around here likes it.’

She added: ”The building should be disguised by greenery, it should be covered, but most importantly it should be much lower in height.

‘It makes a mockery of the planning system.

‘There needs to be trees, evergreens, and landscaping put in pace, and the new gabion structure on the right side needs to mirror the other.’

Neighbours have complained that the partially-built eco-home (left) ‘looks nothing like’ the plans (right) they were shown when she applied for planning permission

Mrs Titterton-Fox told how neighbours ‘jealous of my dream home’ had led her to halting her buildings work

Pictured: Laa Laa in front of the Tellytubbies’ house, which has been compared to Whitwell’s new eco-home, in the children’s show’s Netflix revamp

She said that the eco home owner, who like her has lived in the village for 20 years – a beauty spot near Oakhame village lies which boasts the first memorial statue to the late Queen, and historic Stamford in neighbouring Cambridgeshire – ‘used to be a friend of mine but I don’t speak to her now.’

Her insurance broker husband Simon previously fumed: ‘There is no getting away from it. When people are living there they will be able to see us in bed and see us in the shower. That is an invasion of our space and privacy, and is alarming. We feel sick.’

Another neighbour, who declined to be named, said retrospective plans being given the green light was ‘very sad.

The woman, whose home overlooks it from a height, said: ‘Is it an outstanding an innovative build, no, and it is certainly no Grand Designs building.

‘It was a breach of planning law and she did not meet the criteria and there has since been seven rounds of consultation by planning officers who then recommend the council approved it.

‘There were a lot of objections but locals have been ignored – our views have not been taken into account.

‘It is not an attractive building and spoils the view in our pretty, historic village, which has some listed buildings.

‘And now a tall black ugly chimney flue has gone up on the roof.’

She added: ‘But she got it, fair play, and what can we do apart from spending £30,000 on a judicial review.’

Before the build, the hill on which the Teletubby house squats was completely untouched 

The house, which is inhabitable, is still worked on and the owner hopes it will be completed and ready to move into by late summer.

Mrs Titterton-Fox and her husband Andrew, 60, a civil engineer with Transport for London, are living in a caravan on site.

She told our website: ‘We’ve not done anything to it really because this planning row has dragged on, apart from putting flooring down and plastering and painting the walls.

‘It still cannot be lived in, there’s electricity but no water and not kitchen or bathrooms but they are no on order and we are hoping to move in by late August-September.

‘The house is not any higher but a little bit wider and build into the wings.

‘All this stress has been very traumatic and I’ve lost two stone in weight.

‘There’s been a lot of negativity and toxicity in the village and one resident has been harassing me, posting against me on social media and keeps videoing me because I’m building a new house.’

‘There have been lots of negative posts by one individual and I have had to report it to police.’

For now at least, the house is here to stay and is part of the Rutland landscape 

Mrs Titterton-Fox told how neighbours ‘jealous of my dream home’ had led her to halting her buildings work and has only made matters worse.

But after working amicably with council officers to find a solution to meet planning rules, and make amendment, she assured fellow residents: ‘Wait till you see the finished house!

‘It will be all landscaped with trees and plants, and is even planted with wild flowed and white daisies on the roof, and you won’t even know we’re there!

‘Complaints that our build is too high are ridiculous and in time it will be almost totally hidden from view, the house will disappear behind screening.

‘I can the end of the light of the tunnel.’

The couple own another £750,000 five-bed house in the village – their former family home – which they are renting out as an Airbnb and have recently sold.

The twice-wed farmer said: ‘We finally have a buyer but all the negativity about our new eco home has made it difficult to sell.

‘Prospective buyers have said they’ve read all about me and the planning battle and commented: ‘What terrible neighbours you have.

‘I have lived in this beautiful village bedside Rutland Water for 24 years. I am a small holder with animals and livestock, and no one will speak to me anymore. I have done nothing wrong.’

The Council’s Development Manager Justin Johnson, who had previously taken members on a site visit of the property on land off Exton Road Whitwell Conservation Area, told the meeting: ‘We investigated on behalf of out own enforcement team.

‘The dwelling is larger that permitted with two additional rooms and a black flue has been erected to serve a wood burner.

‘But there will be tree planting to provide further screening and the building will one earth covered and seeded.’

He advised that the property did not impact in ‘neighbours or amenities.’

He said the retrospective amended plans included gabion walling, landscaping and excavation to the rear for car parking.

‘It does not impact the setting of the Grade II listed Church of St Michael or the Home Farmhouse.

‘Due to maintained separation distances, there will be no loss of privacy, or oppressive environment for neighbouring properties.

‘It raises the design standards in the ares and has minimal visual impact, with only glimpsed views from nearby public roads and footpaths.’

‘The development will not lead to increased flood risk in the area.

‘Approval is recommended subject too conditions outlined in the agenda.’

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