A wealthy businessman is facing the possibility of having to dig up his tennis court and tear down a home gym after losing his appeal in a planning row.
Mark Hepburn, 52, has failed in his bid to have a field behind his £800,000 country house in a village near Southampton recognised as his garden.
Locals had initially raised concerns about the ‘increased urbanisation’ of the area after the successful Starbucks coffee entrepreneur built a bright blue tennis court, home gym, bar, TV room and children’s play area on the three acre rural site.
Mr Hepburn – who until recently owned a multi million pound business – claimed that the plot had been used as a garden by its previous owners and that he and his family were just doing the same.
However, a planning inspector has now upheld the council’s decision to refuse his application to formally convert the land to residential use.
Robert Hitchcock said there was ‘insufficient evidence’ for the change of use, meaning all of the items in the field are now under threat of being ripped out.
Dismissing the appeal, Mr Hitchcock said there was ‘contrary evidence’ to show the site had been used agriculturally in recent years after Mr Hepburn had bought a flock of alpacas to live on the land in question.
Details of Mr Hepburn’s case emerged at a planning inquiry in Winchester, Hampshire, during his failed appeal against the city council’s decision.
Mark Hepburn – who until recently owned a multi million pound business – had received complaints over the development of agricultural land behind his £800,000 six bedroom country house
Locals raised concerns about ‘increased urbanisation’ after the successful Starbucks coffee entrepreneur had built a bright blue tennis court, home gym, bar, TV room and children’s play area on the three acre rural site (pictured)
Until October last year, the father of three owned the successful Starbucks franchise 23.5 Degrees which operates 110 locations of the popular coffee chain across the UK.
He bought the six bedroom property in the quiet Hampshire village for £740,000 in December 2017 and planned additional work to the house and garden.
In evidence submitted to the inquiry, Mr Hepburn said that when the previous owners had shown him around the property it was the ‘extensive garden’ that appealed the most.
He said they told him how they had used it to walk their dogs and installed rope swings on the tree for their children.
At the inquiry in January, Mr Hepburn said: ‘It is semi-rural, the house wasn’t the nicest house but it had an extensive garden and with a young family that is important, we spent more time viewing the garden than the house.
‘[They were] using the land how we would use it.’
After the family moved in, Mr Hepburn said they fulfilled a dream of his wife’s by buying a flock of alpacas, which lived on the land at the back of the home.
However, because they were pets rather than for commercial use, in 2021 he was asked by the council to apply for a lawful development certificate, stating that the land was in residential use not agricultural.
David Bushby (pictured walking to the planning hearing with fellow local Dawn Castell) said he has had to put up with over five years of building work
Mr Hepburn claimed the plot had been used as a garden by its previous owners and that he and his family were just doing the sam
‘I got an email from the council, they had a problem with the alpacas because they were pets,’ he said.
‘They said I had to make an application to change the use.
‘[My wife] always wanted them as a child, she loves them.
‘Our dream was to own alpacas, they eat the grass and they are inquisitive, they come up and approach you.’
He made the application in May 2023 and in July it was refused by Winchester City Council.
The planning inquiry heard that the lawful development certificate was denied because the council did not believe the field had been used as a garden continuously for ten or more years, the threshold for certification.
To support the application Mr Hepburn had submitted statutory declarations from him and the previous owner stating that the field had been used as a garden, stretching back as far as 1988.
After the certificate was refused Mr Hepburn built the bar and gym in late 2023 and the tennis courts in 2024.
After the family moved in, Mr Hepburn said they fulfilled a dream of his wife’s by buying a flock of alpacas, which lived on the land at the back of the home
Mr Hepburn told the inquiry he did not seek planning permission for these developments as he thought they were allowed under permitted development rights.
The bar and gym, comprising a weight machine, boxing and two elliptical machines, are housed in two timber huts with a TV room also part of the complex.
He told the inquiry he did not seek planning permission for these developments as he thought they were allowed under permitted development rights.
Dismissing the appeal, Mr Hitchcock said: ‘I find that there is insufficient evidence of a precise and unambiguous nature to conclude on the balance of probability that a residential garden use of the land has supplanted all agricultural use and has done so on a consistent basis for a period of 10 years or more without interruption across the site.
‘Moreover, there is contrary evidence to show that uses falling within the definition of agriculture persisted on the Land (and still do) such that the change of use to a single residential use has not occurred.
‘I conclude that the Council’s refusal to grant a certificate of lawful use was well founded and that the appeal should fail.’
The local authority – which has been approached for comment – has yet to explain what happens next regarding the building work Mr Hepburn has carried out on the land.
Speaking before the decision was made neighbours hit out at the businessman for ‘doing what he wanted’ and trying to ‘cash in’ on the land.
Richard Callaway, 57, has said the ‘constant’ work is the ‘biggest reason’ why he is looking to move away from the area.
After the certificate was refused Mr Hepburn built the bar and gym in late 2023 and the tennis/netball courts in 2024.
The roofing contractor said: ‘In the time that they have been here it has just been constant building.
‘I won’t be here much longer, it is one of the biggest reasons to move, when does it end.
‘The first thing they put in was a play area, we thought it was a strange place to put it.
‘I think the whole goal was to get that land for planning, that is my opinion, he wants to cash in on it.
‘I think he has got a big ego, I don’t think he likes being told, my opinion is he will get his own way.
‘I am just fed up with it.’
David Bushby, 60, a retired bank manager, said he has had to put up with over five years of building work.
The neighbour said: ‘We are just supporting what the council say.
‘He does everything he wants to do and pays his solicitors to sort it out.
‘He has got a huge amount of experience in planning, when he was building all the Starbucks he talks with planners all across the country but in his comments he was saying he thought he was allowed.
‘We had three years of building at the back, two years whilst they have done the huts and tennis courts, just building works for over five years.
‘The case is about agricultural land whether it was used as residential.
‘Everybody with a field at the back is worried about building, you build a shed and when it comes to planning you can set a precedent.’
