Comedian and actor Ricky Gervais has lost a bid to demolish his £3 million home in Marlow and replace it with a luxury new build after flooding problems.

Gervais submitted plans to build a new four-bedroom property at his “country retreat” on the River Thames in Marlow this summer, with design proposals laying the grounds for an impressive Georgian neoclassical-style mansion, replacing the comparatively modest three-bedroom build currently at the site.

His ambitions were dashed earlier this month, however, when the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council refused permission for the project – citing incompatibility with local and national planning policy.

An architect employed by the Reading-born comedian to state his case described the existing property as “of poor design quality with a disjointed internal layout” and – falling as it does within a local flood zone – emphasised the increased flood defence of the new proposal.

A CGI look at the proposed mansion (Image: RBWM Council)

CCTV photos included in the application show the entrance to the house experiencing severe flooding earlier this year – something that would have been combatted by new flood guards and “floodable voids” underneath the replacement building’s ground floor.

As well as falling within a flood zone, the property sits on designated green belt land – a fact that stymied Gervais’s plans to add another bedroom to the £3 million home back in March but was not given significant weight in consideration of the demolition proposal.

What the property looks like now (Image: RBWM Council)

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Instead, acknowledging that the new house would be similar in size to its predecessor and fit with the “scale and design” of others in the vicinity, the council zoned in on the plan’s environmental and flooding issues, citing these as the primary reasons for its refusal.

While Gervais’ architect agreed to incorporate biodiversity measures including new bat and bird boxes into the proposal, planning director Adrien Waite said this was not enough to meet the required 10 per cent biodiversity net gain of a new development at the site, as laid out in National Planning Policy Framework.

CCTV of flooding at Gervais' home earlier this year (Image: RBWM Council)

Mr Waite also pointed to the property’s “flood vulnerability”, raising concerns about whether the new build would be safe from flooding itself or “increase flood risk elsewhere” – with new plans including the “floodable voids” potentially increasing the risk of overflow.

Gervais was additionally said to have fallen short of local policy by not securing “adequate financial contribution to the council’s carbon offset fund” through the proposal, meaning the plans could have been judged to have “an adverse impact on climate change”.

A tennis court at the front of the property, which The Office creator bought in 2016, would have been retained had the demolition plans been successful.