Jennifer Saunders and Adrian Edmondson are locked in a year-long dispute with council planners over proposed changes to their £2 million second home in Devon.
The comedy duo, married since 1985, had planned a £250,000 extension to their historic Dartmoor property, where they say they intend to move full-time as they wind down their work commitments in London, The Sun reports.
Last year, they secured planning permission for a new entrance and parking area, an expanded workshop, a new terrace, and the relocation of a garden greenhouse. The approved works also included replacing a window, building a new garden pavilion, and installing air source heat pumps and a solar array.
Permission was granted with three conditions attached — the removal of an external staircase and first-floor door within 12 months and installation of a first-floor window; submitting plans for a new “replacement painted timber door” for approval before work begins; and providing details of any air source heat pumps to planners in advance.
Dartmoor National Park Authority is now considering the couple’s bid to have these conditions removed.
In supporting documents, their planning agent said: “Jennifer and Adrian have lived at Teigncombe Manor for over 30 years. Their work has meant that the couple splits their time between London and Devon. However, Jennifer and Adrian anticipate in the coming years reducing the amount of time spent away from home and living full time at Teigncombe Manor. They wish to make some sensitive alterations to the existing outbuildings in order to better suit their current needs and lifestyles.”
Planning officer Clare Vint, however, warned that the changes “have not been minimised” in their impact on the Grade II-listed property. She wrote: “There is also insufficient justification for the works and minimal public benefit. The interior and exterior of the building are of high significance architecturally, historically and archaeologically. The change in topography to create the car pergola, with its stark raised eastern wall, glazed balustrade, with vehicles visible at high level when viewed from the south east will cause harm to the setting of the cottage, the setting of the house and the overall relationship between them. When coupled with the open car port frame (pergola) the negative impact is increased (irrespective of whether this is covered in vegetation in time).”
A settlement has existed on the site since the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was recorded as “Taincoma”. The current 16th-century manor house, known as Teigncombe Manor, is a longhouse dwelling significantly refurbished in the mid-20th century. Cottage buildings on the site date from the 1880s and 1905, while Saunders and Edmondson also made alterations with planning approval in 1995.
Their application also acknowledges: “Some works within the listed curtilage of the cottage were previously undertaken without consent. This application seeks to regularise those works, with no structural alterations proposed within the cottage.”
A decision date for the application has not yet been set.
