Rupert Grint, the Harry Potter star, wants to develop a barn on his estate into three new three-bedroom homes. He withdrew a previous application to North Hertfordshire District Council to turn the barn into six houses.
His home is a former vicarage. It is set within 22 acres. It has six bedrooms, two swimming pools and a private cinema. Grint is 32 years of age. He played Ron Weasely in the Potter films. He tried to sell the house last year for £6 million but couldn’t find a buyer.
He believes that his application is sympathetic to the area in terms of character and appearance and that the new homes will be high quality and in keeping with the rural surroundings.
There are objections from local residents and the parish council. One resident of Kimpton, Tim James, objected on the grounds that the roads could not sustain the extra number of residents in the area. He said that before the pandemic there was often “serious congestion in the mornings as there simply is not room to pass lorries and buses”.
The parish council objected to the plan on the grounds that it included the felling of four ash trees and it did not help to meet the need for 24 affordable homes in the parish which has been identified in a housing survey.
Matt Dodds of the Hertfordshire And Middlesex Wildlife Trust requested an ecological survey because he believes that it is highly likely that there are bats roosting in the barn.
Rupert Grint is a property owner and developer it seems. His company is called Clay 10 Ltd which reported assets of £20.3 million in 2019 with profits of £3 million. Mr Grint has gone into property development but has he given up acting?
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