A timber yard at the centre of a spat with celebrity neighbour Vernon Kay has put up posters seemingly branding the television star a “Northern NIMBY” – which have apparently not gone down well.
Television presenter and I’m a Celebrity star Vernon and other neighbours are unhappy with Timberstore Ltd’s plans to keep a bungalow for their yard manager on their land.
Timberstore Ltd built a two-bedroom bungalow for the yard manager and his family to live in back in 2014 but it never had planning permission.
The fencing company applied for a ‘certificate of lawfulness’ in 2020 to finally make the bungalow ‘legal’ – but with neighbours on the exclusive country lane unhappy with the plans, Buckinghamshire Council rejected them.
Timberstore Ltd is appealing the refusal with the Planning Inspectorate.
The Bucks Free Press reported last week how Vernon, 47, and other neighbours had urged the council to reject the plans because the bungalow was on Green Belt land.
Since then, “amusing” posters have appeared on the lane taking aim at Vernon and a sexting scandal he was embroiled in back in 2010.
Vernon was exposed in the press for sending sexual text messages to a glamour model and made a public apology on the radio to wife Tess.
The posters suggest that over 35 years, the company has picked up litter, planted hundreds of trees, cut verges and hedges, prosecuted fly-tippers – and “removed paparazzi reporting on sexting”.
Timberstore Ltd said the situation had escalated when “apoplectic NIMBY Vernon Kay” called the director Ian Caldwell late on May 6 to “demand the removal of an amusing caricature”, adding: “Vernon (in his six bedroom mansion on the same road) has been leading the fight against hard working employee and his family who have been living the bungalow.”
A number of Timberstore Ltd employees live on mobile homes provided by the yard, but the yard manager was planning to move back to his home country because of a lack of space for his family.
Instead, an £80,000 bungalow was built on land adjoining the yard for them to live in more comfortably.
They have lived there since May 2014, but could now be forced to move out if the plans are now allowed on appeal.
Other neighbours on the lane have also objected to the bungalow’s existence, with Martin Gardener describing the building as an “unnecessary intrusion into the local countryside”.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel