When you’re blessed with an 18th-century pile in the Home Counties, a Cornish retreat with its own helipad, not to mention a £1 billion back catalogue deal, you might struggle to get too excited about what’s under the Christmas tree.
But that’s unlikely to have been the case for Roger Taylor. For I can disclose that the 75-year-old Queen drummer is celebrating victory, much to the chagrin of those living within a few decibels of his Surrey residence.
A number of them had raised a racket in response to Taylor’s plans to erect a 70ft x 60ft, L-shaped barn some 440 yards from his house but barely 55 yards from a property just outside the 48 acres which Roger and his wife Sarina enjoy.
‘Given the applicant’s extensive landholding, there are ample opportunities to position the barn in a less prominent and visually intrusive location,’ huffed one critic. Attention was also drawn to the ‘constant hum’ of farm machinery, which the barn would only intensify, it was claimed.
But it was the alleged aesthetic deficiencies of the proposed barn – twice the height of an existing structure – which caused most anguish, with one local bemoaning it as ‘a large, industrial-style metal structure… not in keeping with the rural and scenic character of the area’.
But Taylor has heard it all before. Two years ago, he emerged victorious after a 12-month struggle to secure permission for a pool house with bar and whirlpool bath – essential additions to a residence which has six bathrooms, a staff flat and an eight-car garage.
So he’s proved once more, with his local council’s planning officer ruling that the new barn will ‘not result in a material loss of outlook or overshadowing [or] any overbearing impact on neighbouring dwellings’.
Time, perhaps, for Roger to treat his neighbours to a rendition of one of his hits, Another One Bites The Dust.
Roger Taylor erect a 70ft x 60ft, L-shaped barn barely 55 yards from a neighbouring property
Taylor with his wife Sarina. Two years ago the singer emerged victorious after a 12-month struggle to secure permission for a pool house
Taylor and his wife Sarina attending the Lord Mayor’s ‘Under the Painted Sky’ Gala at the Banqueting House in May 2019
Crumbs! Alexa’s risque swan bake
T-Girl Alexa Chung once admitted that she doesn’t like having her cleavage on show due to ‘clavicle issues’.
Yet the TV presenter, 41, didn’t mind putting on a racy display for guests at a New Year’s Eve dinner at her London home, as she served them a cake in the shape of a swan with a pair of human female breasts on its back.
‘Happy boob swan to you,’ Alexa wrote alongside this photo she posted online.
The model, who is dating actor Tom Sturridge, credits ‘genius head’ Oda Jaune, the London-based Bulgarian artist, with designing the ‘immaculate’ desser
Alexa Chung didn’t mind putting on a racy display for guests at a New Year’s Eve dinner at her London home
The TV presenter served guests a cake in the shape of a swan with a pair of human female breasts on its back
Boarder Sienna’s Post Traumatic Spam Disorder
Sienna Miller has recounted the upset she faced as a young child being packed off to boarding school aged just eight following her parents’ divorce.
The Hollywood star was sent to £42,489-per-year all-girls Heathfield in Ascot, whose alumnae include model Amber Le Bon, socialite Daphne Guinness and TV star Susannah Constantine.
‘I was tiny, and it was too young,’ says Sienna, 42. ‘It was, on paper, a really idyllic-looking place. It was a manor house and there were only 52 girls.
‘But that first night you’re in a room with ten girls you’ve never met, in metal beds with tweed blankets over the top, and it’s lights out at seven. It’s traumatic, it’s completely traumatic,’ she told Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast.
Sienna Miller has recalled her ‘traumatic’ experience of being sent off to boarding school
The mother-of-two also says it was far from the gilded life when it came to the school’s meals. ‘They used to feed us Spam on Tuesdays and you’d have to finish your plate, you’d have to eat everything.
‘I remember sticking it in my pockets and finding dried bits of Spam in my pocket – which was lovely.’
Daisy’s ambitions for her big day…
Daisy Lowe is hoping not to be branded a ‘bridezilla’ as she prepares for her wedding to property developer Jordan Saul (pictured).
The fashion model, 35, says she is yet to walk up the aisle to wed Saul, 30, with whom she has a one-year-old daughter, due to her meticulous planning for the day.
‘It’s so full-on and it’s crazy how much you have to plan for one day, but it’s exciting,’ she tells me at a fashion do in London.
Daisy Lowe is meticulously planning for her upcoming wedding to Jordan Saul
‘I don’t want a wedding planner because I’ve got a vision in my head of how I want the day to turn out down to a minute detail,’ says the daughter of Pearl Lowe and rock star Gavin Rossdale.
Daisy, whose ex-boyfriends include The Crown star Matt Smith, adds: ‘I feel like I’ve got it under control.’
Mary’s low-key 70th
Alas, Dame Mary Beard’s 70th birthday won’t be one for the history books as she recovers from an illness.
The classicist, who entered her eighth decade on New Year’s Day, tells me: ‘There’ll be no carousing for me this year – semi-laid-up with a Christmas lurgy.’
Dame Mary did, however, find consolation in a ‘glass of champagne’ and using the ‘foot spa and massager’ she was given by her two children. Get well soon.
Mary Beard’s 70th birthday on New Year’s Day was without any ‘carousing’ as she recovers from an illness
Tindall’s firm is in rude health
Mike Tindall was said to have embarrassed the Royal Family after he used the Covid pandemic furlough scheme for an employee at his private company Kimble Trading, into which he channels his earnings.
However, the firm is in rude health as I can reveal Tindall – husband of Princess Anne’s daughter Zara – has reported his most successful year of trading to date. New accounts show the company, which was set up in 2003, has for the first time reported more than £1 million in profits.
The former England rugby captain, 46, disclosed almost £1.6 million worth of assets, including £667,577 in cash and deposits and £893,947 worth of future income.
Mike Tindall’s company Kimble Trading has reported its most successful year of trading
Army removes comments on ‘woke’ badge changes
Just days after I disclosed plans to remove the cross from the centre of Army chaplains’ cap badges – or a Star of David for their Jewish counterparts – comments about the highly controversial ‘woke’ proposal have been removed from a Facebook page for military padres.
‘This is not to stifle discussion, but a desire for it to happen in the most appropriate forums,’ purrs an administrator.
Their predecessors’ battlefield courage – four, no less, were awarded that highest honour, the Victoria Cross – will, I trust, dissuade anyone from even thinking of retreat.
