Plans for one of the biggest basements in London have been withdrawn just before they were set to be rejected because there was no provision for affordable housing.
Objections poured in from neighbours of the property in Chelsea, including Edna O’Brien and the Duchess of St Albans, who described the plans as “monstrous” and “absolute greed”.
Planning officers at Kensington and Chelsea were due to reject the plans, citing several problems with them. This included the fact that they failed to provide affordable housing — a requirement under the council’s new Local Development Framework.
The plans were submitted by David Graham, 75, a Canadian cable television billionaire who was the first husband of Barbara Amiel, Lady Black. He bought the former school building in Walton Street and was allowed to convert it into a house with one basement level.
But the three-storey expansion plans would have trebled the size of the house, adding a ballroom, wine storage, family playroom, 45ft swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, gym and massage room, staff accommodation, parking for three vehicles, a turning circle and car lift.
The application — at 18,000 sq ft, it is the equivalent of three large detached family houses — stated Mr Graham needed “further accommodation to suit his family’s needs as required by today’s contemporary living”.
On Monday his agents were told that the council would reject the plans by the end of the week for a long list of reasons. They included: over-provision of off-street car parking, inadequate construction traffic management plans, insufficient information about the environmental impact associated with the swimming pool and inadequate information to demonstrate that the basement would be structurally stable and eco-friendly.
