The BBC director-general has been battling against a planning development next to his multi-million-pound rural family home, saying that it will create a more “suburban feel”.
Tim Davie and his wife wrote an objection to a planning application to build two new homes just yards away from their farmhouse in the Oxfordshire countryside.
The £4 million property is in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Beauty and boasts a barn, milking parlour and stables, according to the Mail on Sunday.
He wrote in his objection to the council: “This is a quiet, small country lane already facing increased traffic, significant road damage and ongoing flooding. This new proposal goes much further to create a more suburban feel in the village.”
The objection comes despite Mr Davie previously suggesting in a 2015 lecture that “base wiring is … suburban Britain”.
A previous application to build a five-bedroom house just yards away from Mr Davie’s home was accepted but a separate application to turn the development into two homes was rejected.
Builders Bentier are appealing the decision while also putting in a new planning application to enlarge the previously approved single-home development, which has now been accepted by the council.