Father is jailed after refusing to bulldoze two countryside properties he constructed for his household with out planning permission
A father has been jailed after refusing to bulldoze two family homes he built in rolling countryside for his family.
Michael Merrill, 53, was sent to prison for 12 months after a decade-long battle with his local council over two wooden-clad properties he erected on his land in Cheshire – without planning permission.
Merrill had built one house for his immediate family and another for his in-laws, plus a viewing platform, on the site called ‘Six Acres’ in Wirswall.
Following a string of complaints, Cheshire East Council slapped him with an enforcement notice in 2014.
The order stated that the buildings were ‘all in open countryside and without planning permission’.
It added that Merrill had ‘ignored all other legal steps by the council to have the properties removed’.
Merrill continued to defy the council’s order to remove the buildings until the case was heard at the High Court in Manchester in 2024.
He claimed he had the right to ‘live on the land’ and the Town and Country Planning Act did not apply to him and his wife.
The properties were built in rolling Cheshire countryside without council planning permission
One of the two wooden-clad family homes in Wirsall, Cheshire, which saw a father go to prison for a year after he erected them without planning permission
The properties were intended for Merrill’s in-laws and immediate family, but they received a string of complaints and he was slapped with an enforcement notice by the council in 2014
Merrill continued to defy the council’s order to remove the buildings until the case was heard at the High Court in Manchester in 2024
But a judge rejected this and ordered Merrill to tear down the houses within a year as well as a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
When Merrill still refused to comply with the court ruling, he was jailed for 12 months for contempt of court last May.
The judge also awarded costs to the council of £16,917 in addition to £21,000 worth of costs from previous hearings.
Councillor David Jefferay, chair of Cheshire East Council’s environment and communities committee, said: ‘Prison is the ultimate sanction which can be handed down by a court in matters concerning unauthorised development.
‘They are not proceedings which are taken lightly by the council.
‘However, where there exists a continuing flagrant breach of planning control and where a landowner continues to carry out further unauthorised development, despite an injunction being in place, there is little option left to us.’
Merrill could face yet more prison time if he continues to dig his heels again against the demolition order.
Councillor Jefferay added: ‘Irrespective of the landowner serving time in prison, he is still required to comply with the requirements of the injunction – and these remain outstanding.’
