Fortnum & Mason design guru wins fight to block neighbour's new house next to ... trends now
A millionaire design guru who has worked for Fortnum & Mason has won a court fight to block his neighbours' new house from being built after complaining it looks 'too suburban' to be next to his £3million country mansion.
Interior designer Glenn Kinnersley, 60, and his wife Donna fell out with photographer neighbour Paul Dixon and his wife Angela over plans to build a 'suburban' style barn conversion they say will spoil the stately image of the Georgian country pile in the Kent Downs.
Mr and Mrs Dixon live in Mulberry Cottage, which adjoins Hollingbourne House and which they rescued from dereliction when they moved in 24 years ago.
Mr and Mrs Kinnersley expressed their 'disappointment with the suburban design, the extensive glazing and the non-traditional flat roof' of their neighbours' proposed build in a letter of protest written through their lawyers to the local council.
Maidstone Borough Council granted permission for the build, but Mr Kinnersley fought on, taking the case first to the High Court and then Court of Appeal.
Mr Kinnersley and wife Donna bought Grade-II listed Hollingbourne House (pictured), which dominates a crest on the Kent North Downs for £1.6million back in 2005
Glenn Kinnersley (pictured), 60, claims photographer neighbour Paul Dixon's 'suburban' style barn conversion will spoil the stately image of his £3million Georgian country pile in Kent
This week, he won a Court of Appeal ruling, overturning the council's January 2021 decision, after claiming the local authority ignored the impact their neighbours' new house would have on the prized 'heritage asset' of their posh home.
An internationally renowned interiors guru, Mr Kinnersley has designed for Fortnum and Mason and set up global creative design brand Kinnersley Kent, a flourishing business based in London and Dubai.
He and his wife bought 18th century Hollingbourne House for £1.6 million in 2005, transforming it into a sprawling family home, dominating a crest of the Kentish North Downs.
The Georgian mansion, which came with eight acres of grounds and 'vast cellars', was originally the seat of a family of prominent Kent landowners - the Duppas - and was designed by the architect Charles Beazley as a 'grand neo-classical residence'.
But the couple's contentment in their stately dream home was shattered when they learned their neighbours, Mr and Mrs Dixon, were trying to convert a barn on their land into two new houses.
Complaining to the council during the planning process, Mr and Mrs Kinnersley said they had a 'fundamental concern about the design of the scheme' - which involves demolishing part of the barn to erect a 'replacement structure' and converting the barn's front section to create two homes, plus parking and garden space.
The Dixons also want to demolish a garden wall which their neighbours say is historic, while rebuilding an alternative wall and
