House builder Taylor Wimpey has been told to remove a property built without planning permission. The property in Cranbrook is located on the high street and was erected to serve as a sales centre for the company.
Cranbrook is a new town development being built in a rural, greenfield location on the outskirts of Exeter, Devon. The former farmland site sits between Exeter Airport and a new railway station on the mainline route linking Cranbrook to London Waterloo.
Taylor Wimpey has been selling new homes at Cranbrook since 2011. However, on 25th October, East Devon District Council (EDDC) requested that the building was removed and the site returned to its former condition, within three months – along with the flags and signage also erected on the site. The company took no action, and enforcement action has now begun.
The area has been designated for shops in the “prominent” high street location. Local Councillor, Todd Olive, accused Taylor Wimpey of blocking the objective. He said that the company’s decision to go ahead with building the property was “deeply frustrating”.
The company described the structure as a ‘temporary cabin’ that would “generate more activity” in the town. The “phase of land” on which it was built, it said, was currently being openly marketed.
The council’s quick response to the sales centre building quickly backfired. In reaction to EDDC’s Facebook announcement of its action, social media users were quick to criticise the council, saying the “same rapid response” had not been received over the completion of the town centre. While houses were being “crammed in”, some of the facilities promised ten years ago were yet to materialise, and roads were yet to be adopted.
Taylor Wimpey apologised for the issues caused by the construction of the sales centre, and applied for retrospective planning permission – despite being advised before it was built that planning permission would be required and that the the local authority considered the site unsuitable.