Skip to content

Airbnb host told to tear down 'prison watchtower'

Richard Evans
Local Democracy Reporting Service
Paul Pigott
BBC News
Local Democracy Reporting Service the tower looms above a garden wall. It is above a roof in the right corner of the picture and is surrounded by scaffolding, with black plastic sheeting on the walls. A man in a baseball cap, with white t shirt and dark trousers is leaning on the scaffold rail looking towards the neighbour's property. He has a phone held up near his face with both hands. Local Democracy Reporting Service
The "prison camp watchtower" as seen from a neighbour's garden

Owners of an Airbnb have been told to tear down what neighbours dubbed a "prison camp watchtower" in their garden.

The "monstrous" tower was built without planning permission in January 2024 in the garden of a holiday let on Tan y Bryn Road, Rhos-on-Sea, Conwy county.

It sparked fury from neighbours who claimed the structure was blighting their day-to-day lives.

JAM Domestic Properties Ltd submitted a number of retrospective planning applications to try to retain the "garden room", but these were refused.

Conwy council said: "An enforcement notice has been served which requires the removal of the structure."

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has been told that the order took effect on 17 June, with the developer given 10 weeks from that date to launch an appeal.

Nick Whitmore, 35, who moved on to Tan y Bryn with his family in 2021, said the structure compromised their quality of life.

"It dominates our property and our neighbours," he explained.

"[My family] can't even sit at their breakfast table without it being overlooked, and it is the same for lots of other houses in the locality.

"We are looking forward to the structure coming down.

"It will mean we no longer have such a dominating and intrusive structure, which is so overbearing, looking over our garden or our neighbours' gardens."

Another neighbour previously said the structure was "commanding attention not unlike a prison camp watchtower".

LDRS a tower like structure atop the peaked room of a home. It is as high as the home next door and looms above another building to the left of the photo. There is scaffolding all around the tower . A high brown hedge is at the front of the property and there are mature trees in between the houses, including a large coniferous trees besides and taller than the tower.LDRS
Neighbours of the holiday let on Tan y Bryn Road say the structure is "dominating and intrusive"

An application by JAM Domestic Properties to retain the structure read: "Views from the raised platform into neighbouring properties were recognised as being available from the initial planning consent.

"The proposed development is not considered to lead to an acceptable increase to this and is not considered to have a detrimental impact on privacy or residential amenity to neighbouring properties, and therefore would be acceptable on this basis."

The firm declined to comment on the enforcement notice.