Ruby Wax fights financier over his 'revolting basement and land grab'

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Emer Martin|Ross Lydall @RossLydall|Lindsay Watling

9 April 2013

Ruby Wax and Rachel Johnson are fighting a financier’s plan to create a second basement extension at his £8 million Notting Hill home.

Mark Hawtin, 50, has infuriated residents by seeking permission to dig under his basement to create a second subterranean set of rooms, including an office, gym, kitchen and family room.

But the development, which would increase the size of his house from five to six storeys, involves what opponents have described as an “unauthorised land grab” by excavating public land 5.5 feet under a pavement.

Comedienne Ms Wax, who lives close to Mr Hawtin’s home, told the Standard: “I think it’s revolting. There is a really problem with the ‘whose kitchen is the largest’ mentality. I know people who have built vineyards under their houses. If you want a large house, go and live in Hampstead.

“We have to get behind this push to stop the plans. If we don’t the situation will get worse and worse.”

Residents met last night and are urging Kensington and Chelsea council’s planning committee to reject the application on Tuesday next week.

However a report to the committee suggests Mr Hawtin’s scheme complies with planning laws after being amended. It was rejected last November due to the harm it would have done to a “tree of heaven” that dominates the street scene.

Author Ms Johnson, who lives opposite, called the plans “a disaster”.

She said residents face 78 weeks of disruption and up to 58 lorry movements a day.

She said: “The main problem is with the lorries. A woman was killed on our road by a developer’s lorries a few years ago and also it is a pick-up point for primary school children. Also this isn’t just any extension, it will be two storeys and we are already dealing with an area that is structurally unsound.”

If permission is granted, the council will draw up legal papers requiring Mr Hawtin to replace a mature tree and rebuild the pavement under which his basement would extend.

It has a general policy against allowing developments under pavements, but says Mr Hawtin’s scheme would not interfere with utilities or tree roots.

Catherine Pawson, who lives next door to Ms Johnson and whose husband is the architect John Pawson, said: “It is not so much the basement, but the size of it. And it feels so wrong to have someone ‘land grabbing’. It is a public space, albeit underground. But it will also have a massive impact on our lives. I work from home, Rachel too. We do not want to be subjected to 78 weeks of hell.”

Stella Reed, 67, who lives next door to Mr Hawtin, said: “We are extremely worried about the instability of the ground. There is a real risk that our house will become unstable because the ground will begin to give way.”

Mr Hawtin, who is a director at investment management firm GAM and lives in a town house in South Kensington, also wants to rebuild a lower-ground basement and extend a ground-level extension.

He has also submitted a near-identical application that excludes his wish to dig under the pavement.

Mr Hawtin was unavailable for comment today. His architect Tom Croft said council planners were content with borehole tests showing little likely increase in flood risk, while Thames Water had no objections.

He said they had “gone out of our way” to keep neighbours informed and seek their comments, and had offered to check whether the plans resulted in a “landslip risk” for Ms Johnson.

He said: “A lot of subsidence in the area is caused by tree roots rather than land instability. Building under pavements is a perfectly normal practice and goes on in London all the time.”

He added that Ruby Wax's claim of 58 lorry movements each day was 'not credible' and that there would be an average of one per day.

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Ruby Wax fights financier over his 'revolting basement and land grab'

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