A DEVELOPER has submitted plans to build on land around Britain’s most expensive home.

Michael Spink sold Park Place and 40 per cent of the 500-acre estate on Remenham Hill for 140million in August.

He had spent four years renovating and modernising the property, which is almost 300 years old and Grade II listed.

The previous sale record was set when One Hyde Park in central London was sold for 136million earlier in the year.

Now Mr Spink has submitted six separate planning applications for the remaining 300 acres to Wokingham Borough Council.

The plans are for several new homes as well as the renovation of existing buildings and landscaping. Outline planning permission was granted three years ago.

John Bateman, managing director of development at Spink Property, said: “In 2008, the borough council and English Heritage saw that we were going to reunite the estate as a whole, repair and restore all the listed buildings and monuments and improve the important parkland.

“When we sold the main mansion and half the estate earlier this year, we realised that building a whole estate rather than a number of houses dotted around was the way to go, so we are changing three or four houses and changing the landscaping slightly. We have reduced the build volume of development in the green belt, which is a key thing for us.

“We have been going on this for the best part of five years and planners at the borough council regularly see our ideas.”

If the plans are approved, the work would start next summer and would take about two years to complete.

Mr Bateman said that once the development was complete, it too would be sold.

“This phase is slightly bigger in terms of property and has slightly more land so we would hope it would be worth at least as much as Park Place,” he said.

The plans include:

lDemolishing the Fifties Kentons Cottages and replacing them with three workers’ cottages. The new buildings would have a barn-like appearance and be screened by landscaping.

lReplacing Temple Combe House with a substantial new house and ancillary accommodation. The new property would be a “classically inspired, white mansion — a stunning piece of contemporary architecture in the tradition of an English country house”.

lDismantling Pillar Lodge, a Seventies house which replaced the original lodge building, and replacing it with a new house and ancillary accommodation in the form of two flat-roofed buildings hidden by woodland.

lRemoving Culham Park farmhouse and replacing it with a “small complex of estate workers’ accommodation”.

lRemoving part of Bell House and refurbishing the remainder. This is on a smaller scale to the original plans and includes a new bat barn and bat lofts.

lRemoving the Hatchgate complex and the Kentons semi-detached houses.

lReplacing barns at Temple Combe Farm with new timber-clad, zinc-roofed machinery barns and greenhouses.

lBuilding a single- storey stable block with parking behind a new brick wall in place of two Fifties barns at Culham Park Farm, for which demolition permission was granted in March last year.

lConstructing two new houses on the two former golf courses.

lWidening the drive to 4.8 metres and finishing it with tar sprayed chippings and a layer of gravel to resemble a country lane.

Mark Turner, planning officer at the borough council, said: “The plans have not been scaled down and accord with the outline permission from 2008.”

Both Remenham and Wargrave parish council will be consulted on the plans.

John Halsall, chairman of Remenham Parish Council, said: “As far as the parish council is concerned, this has been a dream development because whenever we have raised a problem the developer has dealt with it.

“The idea was always to have quality substantial landed premises.”

The deadline for comments to the borough council is December 7.

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Published on 28 November 2011