A BUSINESSMAN who built a two-storey leisure and sports building without planning permission is being taken to court after ignoring an enforcement notice to knock it down.
Accountant Graham Wildin built his ‘play pad’, complete with squash court, casino, 16-seat cinema, bar and bowling alley, in the garden of his Meendhurst Road home in Cinderford five years ago.
But after failing to obtain retrospective planning permission, Forest planners ordered him to knock it down by July 7, 2017.
They claimed the building was a ‘bulky structure’ and “totally out of scale and proportion with the surrounding development.”
But the complex is still standing and the Forest council has now issued court proceedings against Mr Wildin for failing to comply with its enforcement notice requiring the removal of the sports and leisure building.
At the time of the enforcement deadline last year, Mr Wildin remained defiant, saying “It’s not coming down. That is definite.
“For a start you can’t physically knock it down because there is no access.
“To get to it you would have to demolish other buildings which do not belong to me.”
He claimed it was not visually intrusive as it was dug 18ft into the ground.
The council has now applied for an injunction requiring Mr Wildin to comply with the enforcement notice and to demolish the unauthorised building.
A council spokeswoman said the case will be heard in the High Court in Cardiff during a two-day hearing on September 20 to 21.