New House Build

A brand new house worth £600,000 is being demolished after council planners ruled it was 2ft too tall.

Stockport Council told builder Stephen Woodfinden-Lewis, 49, he must either make alterations to his new mansion - or the house would have to go.

And after a four-year legal wrangle, a demolition team has now begun taking the house down.

Mr Woodfinden-Lewis originally obtained permission for a much smaller two-bedroom style cottage on the site in Woodford, Cheshire.

Instead, the finished mansion included two reception rooms, four bedrooms and two en-suite bathrooms overlooking 40 acres of greenbelt land.

The council served an enforcement notice requiring the unauthorised house to be demolished after it was found to be 2ft too high and "materially different" from the original approved plans.

Mr Woodfinden-Lewis appealed but it was dismissed in July last year and he was given 12 months to comply with the notice.

This week bulldozers moved on to the site as Mr Woodfinden-Lewis brought in his own demolition team to carefully remove the roof and windows before the house is taken down - brick by brick.

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