Five houses must be torn down after they were built a third bigger than planned

The six-bed detached properties are ‘up to a third bigger and in different locations than they were allowed’ (Picture: SWNS)

Five £1million luxury houses are to be torn down after an inspector dismissed appeals by the owners.

The six-bed houses at Grundy Fold Farm near Bolton were built up to a third bigger than allowed and in different locations, an inquiry heard.

Now owners have been told they have a year to demolish the half-built homes.

Sparkle Developments got planning permission for five properties on the West Pennine Moors in 2014.

But finishing works were put on hold after a complaint in 2016 and in 2018 the local authority issued an enforcement notice to flatten the entire development.

Elan Raja was among the homeowners appealing the ‘excessive’ order.

He said he paid £1,057,000 for the plot and has since spent more than £215,000 on renting an alternative property.

He said the battle has been a ‘nightmare’, which led to him suffering cardiac problems.

The planning permission, which is still in place, is for four dwellings and conversion of the former farmhouse, which was demolished and stands partially rebuilt.

The homes were built in the West Pennine moors (Picture: SWNS)

Bolton Council issued an enforcement notice for demolition in 2018 (Picture: SWNS)

Owners have been told they could bulldoze the homes and rebuild them in the correct area and size. Bolton council says the footprints of the current houses are up to 33 per cent too big.

Ian Ponter, barrister for the council, said harm had been caused to the green belt as the properties were meant to be ‘sensitively sited in a hamlet’.

A planning inspector has now given 12 months to demolish the houses (Picture: SWNS)

He said: ‘The character of the area is scattered farms, individual rural houses and groups of houses clustered into small villages.’

But he said that the current set-up represents a ‘significant departure away from the clear design intentions of the 2014 scheme’.

MORE : Neighbour’s extension leaves just eight-inch gap between houses

MORE : Man furious as he wakes up to find car park extension being built next to home

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