Robert Fidler and the Castle Siege in Salford, U.K.
The farmer, Mr. Robert Fidler, tried to get the proper permits from the county but he was denied at every level. It was then Mr. Fidler's plan to build his castle home in secret and he did so while hiding it from public view with a huge stack of hay bails. Mr. Fidler had learned of a loophole in the law, which states that if a building is built without permission and stands for four years, the building is then considered legal. It was four years after Mr. Fidler built his home that he removed the hay bails and his neighbors finally got a look at what the man had been up to all of those years.
On the surface of this case, one would certainly be sympathetic to the plight of Mr. Fidler. Most people think that if they own the land then they should be able to do whatever they want with it. The fact that this man built his family a home seems innocuous. However, there are extenuating circumstances, which must be considered. The issue at hand is that Mr. Fidler knew the law and while he did try to get the proper permits, he was denied and instead of continuing within the laws and regulations mandated, he decided to build anyway.
This building was done in secret and done in a deceptive way. Mr. Fidler was very much aware that if it were discovered within the four year period of time that the castle would have to be demolished and it is likely that he would be fined. It was Mr. Fidler's intent to try to deceive his way around the laws and if this were to be allowed then everybody would attempt to do it as well. This would lead to many instances of unlawful building and would make the region unmanageable.
There is also the issue of the building not meeting the standards set forth in the "Green Belt." It may be that the castle was built and has stood for the required four years, but if it does not meet the standards set forth by the regulatory commission, then it is still an unlawful building and must come down. While I do sympathize with Mr. Fidler and his family, he did not follow the laws, which were created for a reason and are applicable to every individual.
Sources
Telegraph U.K.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/24/nhouse124.xml
Published by Nicholos Poma B.S.
Nick Poma holds a Bachelor of Science and Information Technology degree. He has served in the United States armed forces as a 31U, Tactical Communications Specialist, from 1983 to 1989 and then again from 20... View profile
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15 Comments
Post a CommentDOWN WITH OPPRESSIVE GOVERNMENTS!
Why not let him keep his home? I mean yeah he found a loophole in the law why not take this incident and let him to keep his home and then change the law again so this thing doesn't happen again. Tis a thought! From USA
Anyone got this guy's email? I wanna give him some encouragement. :) I don't think he would need to tear it down unless it looked terrible. But it doesn't. It looks really good. Besides, it's his land, no one has any complaints,. and its his home. What's wrong with building a castle? Bet it looked better than that stack of hay bales.
The house looks great. Congratulations to the builder/owner - I don't know of many people who could do such an amazing job AND keep it out of sight from the authorities. Council's (I worked for a UK Council for 1 year) are out of control and over-oppressive. They only regulate themselves jobs - simple as that. Good luck!
This Castle is about as far from my personal taste as it could get, but it looks like it would fit right into the local setting. From my experience I believe that government on many levels are way out of control. If this structure can be shown to be structurally sound and brought into compliance with local codes for health and safety, I would strongly support the Owners right to live in it. People everywhere need to reexamine policies that deprive individuals the right to be different. Cheers for Robert Fidler!, from Carmel, California where we have the same kind of Design Review Boards that have to a great degree produced uniform mediocrity .
I have lived in England for 7 years of my life. I loved it there! The reason was because the house and beauty. This castle is beautiful. If they want to tear it down than I would fight too. If the government has to they can create a deal with him and he can have it be a hotel type of resort so he can pay for the unused land and to keep it as his home.
I'm American, live in the U.S. and so forth (yep, this story angers people not just locally but internationally!). I read about this story on the BBC website first. I was pissed off that a bunch of g'ment dingbats would even dare consider tearing a well built house down! If anything, tearing such a structure down isn't too kind on the environment and it would be a strange waste to be so destructive. In my opinion, the house looks marvelous!
Clearly if they tear this house down they should be hanged.
I feel sorry for him. But....I live in Thailand and we have no zoning laws here so it's a nightmare, anything can be built and nobody has the right to stop it. That's what happens when you have no zoning laws.
Do you know what a Pharisee is Jody?
God have mercy on their money and time wasting babbling selves if they tear that house down. And may they not get hundreds of thousands of death threats and be hounded out of their own homes, have their homes torn down by the people, or severely beaten and assassinated by them for wasting the time and money of the people they are supposed to protect and serve, not bully.