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Harry Potter star Rupert Grint leaves locals fuming as they slam ‘money-making’ win in 2-year battle over £5.4m estate
The famous actor is converting his country mansion into apartments, luxury homes and affordable housing
HARRY Potter star Rupert Grint has won his two-year battle to turn his historic estate into a Hogsmeade eco-village - leaving locals "utterly furious".
The actor has been given the green light to convert the 18th century country mansion into apartments, luxury homes and affordable housing.
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Locals fought tirelessly against Grint’s application - dismissing the notion it was an "eco-village”, insisting it was a money-making scheme.
Despite the complaints, it was approved unanimously by the committee with ten councillors out of 11 voting for it - and one abstained.
Grint purchased the property for £5.4million in 2009.
The 36-year-old actor will now construct 15 new properties - six apartments in a conversion of the existing manor house, five detached houses overlooking a lake, and four affordable terraced homes.
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As well as a lake and a pond, there will also be an outdoor swimming pool, a gym, tennis courts and ornamental walled gardens.
There were 16 objections and a number of villagers turned up at a North Herts District Council planning meeting held last Thursday to decide the application’s fate.
Local Davina Malcolm spoke out at the meeting, calling the plans "a tragic act of vandalism".
She added: "This inappropriate development would herald the destruction of this semi-rural area."
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In an exclusive interview, Ms Malcolm, who has lived in the area for over 30 years, said she was livid that the application had been passed.
"I'm furious. I'm utterly furious", she ranted.
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Ms Malcolm says that a woodland of between 30 and 50 mature trees will have to be felled.
However, Grint’s team have stated they’ll replant trees in a different area.
"It's not the building work, it’s the taking down of the trees I strongly object to," she said.
"They’re saying, 'now we're going to take these down and we're going to replant'.
"Why haven't they replanted ages ago so there would be trees coming up? But they haven't done that. It’s somewhere between 30 and 50 [to be removed].
"No one seems to take in the fact that trees drink a lot of water. If you chop them down, you will increase the risk of flooding on the south side of the estate."
Ms Malcolm says Grint lived there for a while, as did his father Nigel, but it currently stands empty.
She ridicules the notion that it will be an eco-village.
"He used to live here, they say it’s now empty, I’ve no idea when the father Nigel moved out", Ms Malcolm added.
"It sounds lovely [eco village], but, to be honest, no houses in the village are sustainable because we all have cars. We all have two cars because the bus is so bad,’ says Ms Malcolm.
"Five large executive homes - it’s not eco anything. There’s the possibility that he sells the land now he's got planning permission."
The council was due to make a decision last summer, but the application - which was filed in October 2022 - dragged on with Grint's team having to submit more supporting documents regarding noise, parking, drainage and trees.
Now she is resigned to the fact that she’s powerless to stop the building work, adding: "There were 16 objections and one in support when the plans went through.
"An awful lot of the villagers are totally oblivious, but when you speak to them, they’ll say, 'Ooh, you can't take down the trees', but they don't do anything about it, that is the truth.
"I found out as I was following the planning application [online], so I was aware of the meeting coming up, so I applied to object in person where you get five minutes."
Despite her best efforts, she feels her heartfelt speech at the council meeting fell on deaf ears.
Meanwhile Grint was ordered to pay a further £1.8million in tax following a bitter legal battle with HMRC over his tax return from the 2011-12 tax year.
He starred in the first Harry Potter film in 2001 as a teen, and is calculated to have earned around £24 million from playing Ron Weasley.
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Most recently he's starred as Julian Pearce in the Apple TV+ psychological horror series Servant.
The Sun has reached out to Rupert's reps for comment.
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