A bakery entrepreneur is designing a £6million luxury waterfront house on Sandbanks, but the plans have whipped up a row with her new millionaire neighbours, MailOnline can reveal.
Sarah Wenzel, the chief executive of the Wenzel bakery empire, decided against refurbishing the large detached house on Poole harbour, which she bought in September 2021.
Instead – after winning planning permission – she had it demolished.
Work has now started on building an ultra-modern, three-storey, flat-roofed, six-bedroom mansion. It will have both indoor and outdoor swimming pools and four glass balconies on the first and second floors to make the most of the stunning sea views.
But the proposals have upset the millionaire neighbours on either side of her.
Sarah Wenzel, the chief executive of the Wenzel bakery empire, decided against refurbishing the large detached house on Poole harbour, which she bought in September 2021
The bakery entrepreneur is planning a dream £6million luxury waterfront house on Sandbanks
The plans have whipped up a row with her new neighbours (pictured before the old building was demolished)
CGI plans for the new property which is an ultra-modern, three-storey, flat-roofed, six-bedroom mansion
An aerial photograph of the exclusive Sandbanks peninsula in Poole, Dorset
One of them lodged a complaint that the property will have a ‘horrendous and intrusive impact’ on his £8.5million home.
He said that the ‘cheek by jowl’ nature of the development next to his mansion would result in Ms Wenzel overlooking his ground floor lounge.
On the other side, millionaire businessman Iain MacRae fears the home will ‘seriously overlook my garden.’
He said: ‘The addition of another floor with balcony will seriously overlook my garden where it is not overlooked whatsoever, along with blocking my views to the south east. I would suggest the balcony to be non-walk round in order to preserve the privacy of my garden and not become overlooked.’
Ms Wenzel adjusted her plans so that the balconies would only be at the front and rear of the house and not along the sides.
BCP Council granted Ms Wenzel planning permission but made it a condition that she put up a 1.8m tall screen on the edges of the balconies to protect the privacy of her neighbours.
Planning officer Sophie Burch said in her report: ‘Concerns were raised regarding the impact of the wrap around balcony on the first and second floor. Privacy screens will be conditioned to the front and rear balconies to prevent significant overlooking. Even with privacy screens it is however recognised that it is likely that the balconies will still result in some level of overlooking.
‘However the majority of the dwellings in the immediate surrounding area benefit from rear balconies with some degree of mutual overlooking between neighbouring properties.
‘The screen should be at least 1.8m tall in the interest of privacy of the neighbouring properties.’
Work has now started on building an ultra-modern, three-storey, flat-roofed, six-bedroom mansion
The front view of the property before it was demolished to make way for the new home
The property will be updated with a sun terrace, a rear garden that runs down to the water’s edge and the outdoor swimming pool
How the garden used to look before it was demolished earlier this year
Ms Burch also said that side windows at first and second floor level must be glazed with obscure glass.
When it is complete, the new property will have six bedrooms, five of them with en suite bathrooms.
At basement level there will be a cinema room, sauna, indoor swimming pool and gym. The ground floor will consist of a snug, study and a large kitchen/diner/sitting room. The first floor will have five bedrooms – three of which will have access to one of the huge balconies.
The top floor will be home to an enormous master bedroom suite which will have a large dressing room and en suite bathroom and doors to the second floor balcony. There will also be a games room on the second floor.
Outside there will be a sun terrace, a rear garden that runs down to the water’s edge and the outdoor swimming pool.
In the front garden there will be a separate one bedroom annex.