Brother of moat cleaning expenses MP wins seven-year planning row with neighbour over ‘eyesore’ access strip to his multi-million pound listed mansion
- James Hogg clashed with council planners in Andover, Hampshire over his home
- Asked for permission to build an equestrian workers cottage back in 2013
- Neighbours claimed that it was an ‘eyesore’ and looked like a ‘large lay-by’
The brother of an MP who claimed expenses to clean the moat on his country estate has won a seven-year planning row with his neighbour over an access strip to his multi-million pound listed mansion.
James Hogg clashed with council planners in Andover, Hampshire, over a road to his 18th Century country manor.
The son of the late Lord Hailsham applied for permission to build a workers cottage in 2013 and in February 2015 started work without planning permission on a ‘minimal’ upgrade to an entrance of Grade II-listed Wherwell Priory.
The work prompted a complaint from neighbours who claimed it was an ‘eyesore’ and looked like a ‘large lay-by’.
James Hogg clashed with council planners in Andover, Hampshire, over a road to his 18th Century country manor (property pictured above)
Controversy: A plan showing the proposed road, which would run to the south of the the Grade II-listed gateposts (centre right) which are next to the former gatehouse (in black) where the neighbours live
Despite the objection from people living at nearby Winchester Lodge, he has now succeeding in winning the planning row.
Yesterday neighbour Martin Starbuck – who lives at the Lodge – said: ‘We objected to them using the drive by the side of our house.’
The Priory is one of the most famous mansions in the south and has the famous River TEST running through the grounds and dates back to the 10th century.
The cottage will give accommodation for the manager and his partner of an equestrian business based at the exclusive mansion.
‘Lay-by’: Photos were submitted to Test Valley Borough Council (above) back in February 2015
James Hogg is the brother of Douglas Hogg (pictured above) who caused uproar when he claimed expenses to clean the moat on his expenses when he was an MP
At the moment they reside in the Priory itself where Mr Hogg and his wife Clare live.
In 2013 Mr Hogg applied to the council for an equestrian workers cottage in the grounds of his mansion but he withdrew the application.
Two further planning applications to the council in 2016 and 2018 were also withdrawn – before this planning application succeeded.
His brother Douglas Hogg caused uproar when he claimed expenses to clean the moat on his expenses when he was an MP.
He had been an agriculture minister under John Major but stepped down from the Commons in 2010 after his expenses were exposed.
In one of the most notorious incidents in the MPs’ expenses scandal, Douglas Hogg agreed to repay the £2,200 cost of cleaning a moat at his country home after he charged it to the taxpayer.
James Hogg was not implicated in the row.