A planning application submitted by Mrs Beeny and her husband Graham Swift stated that earthworks made from the loot were “attractively landscaped” and capable of providing an ideal home for wildlife, wildflowers and newly planted trees.
However, another parish council has complained about the “height and shape” of one of the earth embankments, stating that “traffic noise reflects” onto neighboring properties and “adversely affects residents’ living conditions”.
Ms Beeny’s family agreed to reduce the height of the bench where possible, according to planning documents from 2022, which say other neighbors were not happy with the work on the former dairy farm.
One complained that the works “dumped the loot on good farmland”, meaning that “the farm is now a mess”.
The row over the earthworks, for which Ms Beeny and Mr Swift are still applying for retroactive planning permission, is not the first encounter with neighbors in rural Somerset, where the couple and their four sons moved from London.
In December 2022, there were questions about the future of an ornate alpine tree house that had stood in a New Life In The Country, for which Ms Beeny and her husband applied for planning permission despite having already built the structure.
