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Straw Bale Construction Camo
An English farmer tries to avoid planning controls by concealing a mock-Tudor castle in a 40-foot haystack:
Once it was finished, he and his family moved in and lived there for four years before finally revealing the development -- complete with battlements and cannons -- in August 2006....
Problems began last April when Mr Fidler, thinking he had beaten the planning system, applied for a certificate of lawfulness which is given if a property is erected but nobody objects to it after four years.
But Reigate and Banstead Council says the four-year period after which the building would be allowed to stay is void -- because nobody had been given a chance to see it.
The matter will now be decided in February by the council's planning inspector, who could give the Fidlers as little as six months to tear the castle down.
I hate to say it, but I think Castle Fidler is doomed. Enjoy the
view while you can:
|2.4.08 @ 9:43AM|#
Whoa, way cool. But I think they're pretty dim, thinking they could thwart the planning Council on a technicality. They went through way too much expense and effort, all wasted now. Such a pity, looks like a great house.
Jennifer|2.4.08 @ 9:56AM|#
God forbid anybody be allowed to build and live in a house without written permission from the government.
|2.4.08 @ 9:58AM|#
From the article, the neighbors' response:
"Everyone else has to abide by planning laws, so why shouldn't
they?"
Translated:
"If I'm going to be oppressed, that oppression had better be
uniform! I'd better have a chance to have a hand in it from time to
time, too!"
I cite this as the exemplar of the most common character weakness
threatening liberty today.
|2.4.08 @ 10:05AM|#
"I hate to say it, but I think Castle Fidler is doomed. Enjoy
the view while you can:"
Not if the bureaucrats can't cross the moat!
|2.4.08 @ 10:05AM|#
Um, so no one objects to a 40-foot haystack for four years, but
a nice look castle-house is cause for immediate action? Could he
put the haystack back up and solve all the problems?
I welcome all immigrants from Soviet Europe to America. Come to us
and brain-drain the bureaucratic shitholes the weak and venal among
you have built. We'll reclaim the land in a few decades when
authoritarian sanctimony mutates into a fatal disease.
P.S. Bring hot chicks and your native cuisines.
jj|2.4.08 @ 10:06AM|#
I wouldn't call these people "dim", just desperate. The planning
commissions in England are draconian buddy-buddy clubs. After years
of expense and authorized property building the commission can
still get you to tear your place down as they did to friends of my
parents.
The poor farmer made the mistake of hosting a meeting of gypsies on
his farm, a group of people many xenophobic brits still feel
warranted to hate.
After hundreds of thousands of dollars and an authorized home
raised to roof-level, he had to pull it all down.
Dave T.|2.4.08 @ 10:15AM|#
Funny, no one minded looking at a crummy haystack covered in an
ugly blue tarp for 4 years.
The planning committee is just looking out for us, right?
|2.4.08 @ 10:21AM|#
For a magazine called "Better Homes and Gardens", allow me to
say that your homes and gardens are mediocre and your tips do not
improve as much as re-arrange deck chairs on the titanic.
Please cancel my subscription.
|2.4.08 @ 10:27AM|#
after planners said it was "out of keeping" with the
area
So... gentrification is impossible in Britain?
|2.4.08 @ 10:29AM|#
Apparently some beaurocrat has decided that they have exactly the right number of poor people and that if any of them were to acquire additional wealth, they would need to continue living like the poor in order to "keep up appearances."
European|2.4.08 @ 10:51AM|#
SugarFree, thanks for the invitation, but before I flee Europe, can you arrange to get Kelo v. City of New London repealed first?
|2.4.08 @ 10:57AM|#
"Some factual information for you. Have you any idea how much
damage that bulldozer would suffer if I just let it roll straight
over you?"
"How much?" said Arthur.
"None at all." Said Mr. Prosser.
|2.4.08 @ 11:02AM|#
So... gentrification is impossible in Britain?
They have to incorporate more vinyl siding in the design, I
guess.
|2.4.08 @ 11:03AM|#
Wow, that was absolutely brilliant... too bad the suits don't
agree.
He did follow the letter of the law, though... give him credit for
that. The rest is up to them, I guess.
|2.4.08 @ 11:08AM|#
A show of symbolic digital hands please. Who would object to
that house in their neighborhood? If anyone does, why? I'm curious
about the mindset that considers unusual domiciles should be
unlawful. I'm serious. I consider the unique a benefit to a
neighborhood. Even ugly unique if it is clean and in good repair.
Hot pink roof with lime green trim accents? What is the problem if
your neighbor has different (IYHO, poor) taste?
Anyone?
Bhh|2.4.08 @ 11:19AM|#
I like it.
I think the idea is if you view a house as an investment or
something you're going to flip in the near future, you want it (and
its neighbors) to be as bland, consistent and inoffensive as
possible so it appeals to the broadest range of buyers. Sort of
like fast food. This finds its ultimate form in the McMansion pods
they're still dropping around here.
|2.4.08 @ 11:20AM|#
"If I'm going to be oppressed, that oppression had better be
uniform! I'd better have a chance to have a hand in it from time to
time, too!"
There are multiple jokes on this theme from former Soviet Bloc
nations. My favorite is from Judge Alex Kozinski, who I believe
emmigrated from Romania:
A man finds a magic lamp buried in his garden, and of course as
soon as he begins to rub off the dirt a genie pops out. "I will
grant one wish," says the genie, "but whatever you wish for, your
neighbor gets double." So the man asks the genie to remove one of
his kidneys.
With a sense of humor like that, it doesn't surprise me how the
Romanians dealt with Ceausescu.
robc|2.4.08 @ 11:21AM|#
J sub D,
I agree. My current street (Ive lived there for nearly 4 months)
ranges from over 50 years old houses to 7 years old (mine). Wide
range in sizes and styles. We have some shotgun homes and one house
spread over 3 lots. Plus we have some new garden homes going in
where a farm used to be. They started construction last month (in
answer to the obvious question: I dont know. Maybe they think the
housing bust will have turned by the time they finish them?
Builders build, thats what they do.).
|2.4.08 @ 11:26AM|#
Builders build, thats what they do.
They can't help themselves. It's a beaver gene or something. We
should all be grateful.
|2.4.08 @ 11:38AM|#
This guy obviously doesn't understand the rules of the game; instead of hiding the thing behind a haystack, he should have made a contribution to the Labor Party sufficient to get him a Knighthood. Knights need castles to live in, don't they?
Fluffy|2.4.08 @ 11:38AM|#
The matter will now be decided in February by the council's
planning inspector
This is the line in the article I don't understand.
Are you telling me that if a property owner in Britain complies
with the letter of the law, the inspector gets to decide if the law
didn't really mean what it says?
Not a court?
Bernd|2.4.08 @ 11:40AM|#
Sugarfree,
"not perfect" is putting it nicely.
Your war on drugs and the accompanying police state, your military
adventurism and the never-ending growth of jingoism are the very
envy of Brussels. If you don't believe it, look at the "common
foreign and security policy" plans.
Also, we're not quite as fucked regarding debt as you are. Not that
that's gonna matter much when the Dollar collapse pulls us all
down.
And then the solution will be more government, and the cause will
have been "capitalism". We're all living in interesting times, both
sides of the Atlantic; no sense in splitting hairs who is half a
percent less fucked.
|2.4.08 @ 11:51AM|#
Me likee the house. It would look a little strange in the Texas
brush country where I live, but hey, whatever, dude.
In my old neighborhood in Dallas, I might have had a problem with
it unless they had 3 or 4 lots to put it on, just because it would
have been massively out of scale otherwise.
I wonder just what zoning restrictions it allegedly violates? (And
no, I didn't RTFA).
|2.4.08 @ 1:10PM|#
If Sidler gets to build a castle, we'll all build a castle.
It'll be anarchy!
I thought that was feudalism.
|2.4.08 @ 1:12PM|#
If Sidler gets to build a castle, we'll all build a castle.
It'll be anarchy!
Next thing you know, there will be jousting, and wenching, and mead
halls, and dogs at the table! Well, not on my watch, Boyo!
|2.4.08 @ 1:13PM|#
Hey, who's that guy on the ramparts?
I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal
food trough whopper! I fart in your general direction! You mother
was a hamster and your father smelt of eldeberries.
|2.4.08 @ 1:37PM|#
I wonder just what zoning restrictions it allegedly violates? (And no, I didn't RTFA).
The article doesn't say. As far as I can tell, the council is
pissed because he didn't ask "Mother may I" before he built, so
they'll find some excuse to tear it down.
Ventifact|2.4.08 @ 2:44PM|#
From the pictures that looks like a great house. I would not
object to a house like that anywhere near me.
If Sidler gets to build a castle, we'll all build a castle. It'll be anarchy!
I thought that was feudalism.
Fuedalism means your rights come from someone above you in a
contract of mutual obligation. The government here is behaving like
property owners are vassals subject to the lord's approval for how
to use a land grant.
Feudalism is a social system, not a period of military
practice.
|2.4.08 @ 3:01PM|#
So no one seemed to mind a huge pile of hay and tarp, but they're offended by that house? Huh?
|2.4.08 @ 3:04PM|#
Reading the linked Daily Mail article made me sad. I think the
house is beautiful. When making beautiful buildings is outlawed,
something is wrong. When creative, productive people have to resort
to desparate and elaborate ploys in order to be creative and
productive, something is wrong.
Reading the comments at the Daily Mail made me sadder. Too many
English sheep, it seems, are only willing to stand up and fight
when one of their gets too uppity and needs to be beat down.
Can we go ahead and change the name of modern England to Pussyland
and be done with it? I liked the Olde England and don't want to see
its name sullied by the modern incarnation.
Seer|2.4.08 @ 3:16PM|#
Wow, it's real life The Fountainhead, but with less
rape.
Anyone else find it depressing how many of the comments seem to
support the council?
Jon|2.4.08 @ 3:23PM|#
"Too many English sheep, it seems, are only willing to stand up
and fight when one of their gets too uppity and needs to be beat
down."
Fine, but over any number of issues you can substitute "American"
for "English" in the above sentence and it will still hold
true.
|2.4.08 @ 3:31PM|#
And then the solution will be more government, and the cause
will have been "capitalism". We're all living in interesting times,
both sides of the Atlantic; no sense in splitting hairs who is half
a percent less fucked.
QFT! I still refer to Englan as the Mother Country. Britain and the
US, two nations, forever divided by a common language. ;-)
Bernd|2.4.08 @ 3:34PM|#
SugarFree,
Awesome! I never was a good fiddler anyway, so at least I'll laugh
while Rome burns.
|2.4.08 @ 3:52PM|#
'To the parapets with arms!' Oops, guv'nuh, our arms were confiscated years ago...
|2.4.08 @ 4:41PM|#
When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. The fourth one stayed up, but the Reigate and Banstead Council inspector ordered it to be torn down. Bloody peasant.
|2.4.08 @ 5:45PM|#
I think the local council should tear this manor house down. Local governments have to maintain strict zoning laws, or else every last bit of farmland in Southern England is going to be converted into suburban sprawl. Sure farmland is worth about 1/10th of residental land, but the farmer is compensated with cheaper rates, tax breaks and other subsidies. Call me an elitist, but I agree that the English need to preserve as much remaining farmland and parkland as reasonably possible.
Paul|2.4.08 @ 5:55PM|#
after planners said it was "out of keeping" with the
area
Yes, a castle, out of keeping with England.
John M. Joy|2.4.08 @ 6:09PM|#
...complete with battlements and cannons...
And when the bulldozers come (surely accompanied by a gaggle of
bureaucrats), perhaps they should consider putting these to good
use.
JMJ
Ventifact|2.4.08 @ 6:21PM|#
CSS --
So your plan involves supporting an otherwise uncompetitive farm
business with the money of taxpayers who have to struggle to find
affordable housing because all the available land is being
preserved in its current, obsolete, usage?
And then those farmers in Africa continue to struggle to find
markets for their production in overflooded 1st-world
markets...
I have nothing per se against preserving natural land, but I don't
have much sympathy for preserving farmland when there are tons of
people who'd pay a lot more to put it to a different use.
Jennifer|2.4.08 @ 6:36PM|#
Sure farmland is worth about 1/10th of residental land, but
the farmer is compensated with cheaper rates, tax breaks and other
subsidies.
But he's not allowed to build a pretty house on it. He can,
however, move into some subsidized council-house hellhole.
|2.4.08 @ 7:24PM|#
Sorry, "see" is a link I can barely see...
Still, it is a link.
To a map of the land in question.
Sorry, no castle, and no tarp.
|2.4.08 @ 7:25PM|#
Laws are made to be followed to the letter, if it is to your
advantage. I hope he wins, since it was occupied for 4 years with
nary a peep, etc.
Hey, it's the law.
|2.4.08 @ 7:29PM|#
Here is their address, in case you were wondering.
Honeycrock Farm Axes La, Redhill, RH1 5QL
Bernd|2.4.08 @ 7:50PM|#
SugarFree,
I'm in Montreal, not from. And this is basically Europe in
bureaucracy and taxes, but you can't get good cheese for a decent
price. Worst of all worlds!
And you wonder why I'm cranky, Aspartameboy.
Ventifact|2.4.08 @ 9:59PM|#
Maurkov --
I guess it ruins the joke. Castles everywhere ≠ fuedalism. That's
all I'm saying.
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