White Stuff boss: Claim to keep skate bowl rejected

Planning officials have rejected a millionaire fashion boss's claim that a skate bowl and tennis court he built without permission are legal.

South Hams District Council told White Stuff founder Sean Thomas that he still had to demolish the additions to his luxury Devon waterside home.

It follows a claim by Mr Thomas that enforcement action had lapsed and the additions "are therefore lawful".

The council said it "may still legitimately enforce" its demands.

The skate bowl, tennis court and a substantial garage were built next to Mr Thomas's home near Salcombe in 2016 without planning permission.

Since then Mr Thomas and the local authority have been locked in a planning battle over whether the additions should stay.

Two retrospective planning applications were refused on the grounds that the development represents an "unwelcome and incongruous intrusion" in the designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

The issue was handed over to the council's enforcement team to bring the land back to its former use, as an agricultural field.

Mr Thomas claimed in February that because no enforcement action had been taken in the four years after the work ended, he could keep the additions.

The council has said that the law states that the enforcement action still stands and would "only become immune from enforcement action" after 10 years.

"The council may still legitimately enforce against it as part of the breach of planning control," it said.

Mr Thomas has been asked to comment.

White Stuff, which was started by Mr Thomas and a friend in the French Alps in 1985 selling T-shirts and sweatshirts to skiers, has more than 130 retail outlets in the UK and abroad.

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