Hotel allowed to keep illegally built treehouses

Each lodge treehouse includes two double bedrooms

A Surrey hotel has been told, after a two-and-a-half year battle, it can keep four treehouses which were built illegally.

The accommodation was built next to the Fairmont Windsor Park near Englefield Green, on green belt land near Windsor Great Park, without planning permission.

Councillors voted in favour of the application at a Runnymede Borough Council planning meeting on Wednesday after the hotel agreed to demolish 10 other buildings to make up for the added treehouses.

Officers believed the benefits outweighed the harm to the green belt and recommended the scheme for approval.

Arora Group director Surinder Arora apologised for the "mistake" and told the council: "You will never see this from Arora ever again."

The 10 buildings that were agreed to be demolished included stable blocks, log cabins, horse shelters and part of a barn.

A biodiversity net gain on the site of 20% was also agreed as part of the application, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Speaking against the plans, Amanda Willis told the committee the buildings proposed to be demolished were "typical" of a green belt setting but the lodges were "entirely out of place".

But planning officers told the committee that the spatial harm would be rebalanced by the demolition of other buildings, reducing the impact on the green belt.

Councillor Mark Nuti said the council needed businesses, the development did not impact residents and the hotel attracted tourism to the area.

The council's enforcement team will be monitoring the hotel to ensure there is no further development and that tree planting is going ahead.

The Arora Group also has to pay a £15,000 monitoring fee to cover the costs.