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Plans for Great British Bake Off star Paul Hollywood to build a walled kitchen garden at his Grade II-listed Kent home have been rejected.
The celebrity baker and his wife, who acquired the Ashford farmhouse for £810,000 in 2019, intended the garden for “ad-hoc filming”.
Their proposal included demolishing the property’s conservatory to make way for open-plan space. However, Ashford Borough Council considered that the plans would not be a “sympathetic or appropriate addition” to the historic residence.
The refusal document said the “scale, bulk, design and massing” of the plans would “detract” from the property’s current “special interest”.
The extension was to be clad in Flemish bond bricks with plain clay, housing a kitchen-dining room, and the plans also included the removal of the existing kitchen.
Then externally, a kitchen-garden with patio, raised beds and a brick wall attached to the extension was proposed.
The preliminary proposal states: “The proposed extension is needed for ad-hoc filming by homeowner Paul Hollywood, a well-known television personality and celebrity chef.
“The existing kitchen is not large enough and is too narrow for filming purposes – cameras cannot be positioned high enough to get the necessary shots.
On the other hand, the proposed kitchen extension will provide suitable space for these purposes.
“This location will enable the filming of a unique home-cooking documentary from Paul Hollywood.
“It will provide an engaging and elevated experience for audiences, with the chef in his familiar environment.”
He also argued that the plans were “necessary” to “meet modern standards of a large four-bedroom house”.
Hollywood would have to go through the council appeals process to overturn the decision.