Mark Wright suffers 'devastating' £30,000 disaster at £3.5m mansion

‘I had a little bit of a nightmare’: Mark Wright suffers ‘devastating’ £30,000 disaster at £3.5m Essex mansion he shares with wife Michelle Keegan

Mark Wright has revealed his suffered a ‘devastating’ £30,000 disaster at the £3.5m Essex mansion he shares with wife Michelle Keegan. 

The former TOWIE star, 36, admitted that he has made a very expensive mistake in an attempt to a give himself a ‘little bit of privacy.’

Last year, the couple shared their epic plans for the incredible landscaped garden, lined with £30,000 worth of trees, to shield them from prying eyes. 

But speaking in a new interview on Monday, Mark confessed that the boundary trees didn’t survive the snow this winter. 

He explained to Heart Radio: ‘It’s that kind of weather outside where you start thinking about planting your spring/summer plants. I had a little bit of a nightmare, I’m not gonna lie.’

Oh no: Mark Wright, 36, has revealed his suffered a ‘devastating’ £30,000 disaster at the £3.5m Essex mansion he shares with wife Michelle Keegan

Mark continued: ‘I planted some trees in my garden and they all died, and it’s devastating because I spent so long watching them thinking “please grow”.

‘They were my boundary trees to give me a little bit of privacy, and the company blamed it on the soil because obviously the wrong soil can make your plants go bad.

‘I ended up finding out they recommended the wrong plants to me, and it was because they’re not supposed to be out in the open in anything below minus five degrees and at Christmas time it was like minus 15 when it snowed.’

Mark’s expensive mistake comes after the couple’s plans to make their dream family home a fortress was criticised by two local councils in November.

At the time, Mark and Michelle put in a new planning application to make the estate more secure by surrounding it with a ‘rendered wall’ between 1.8 metres and 2.1 metres high.

Both Epping Forest District Council and Stanford Rivers Parish Council hit out at the ‘inappropriate’ plans claiming they’re not in keeping with the tone of the ‘rural area’ and they would have to cut down trees to make way for the wall.

On one side of the property, there’s a public right of way, which would be blocked, according to the objections.

Epping Forest District Council wrote: ‘This site is in a very rural area, on a minor country lane.’

Oh dear: He explained to Heart Radio: ‘It’s that kind of weather outside where you start thinking about planting your spring/summer plants. I had a little bit of a nightmare’

‘Whilst we accept that the existing conifer screen could be considered to be incongruous within this setting, to replace it with a 2.1metre high rendered wall would be totally out of keeping, and fail to enhance the rural landscape setting.

‘None of the other properties on this lane have such inappropriate boundary treatments.

‘Additionally, we note that the wall on the right hand side of the proposed entrance is within trees.

‘The trees and woodland are protected by a woodland tree preservation order, therefore tree reports should have been submitted to support the proposal… potentially resulting in loss or damage to important tree assets.

‘Our records also show a Public Right of Way, and a check of the Definitive Public Rights of Way map on Essex County Council website, confirms that there have been not alterations to its route.

‘To build the walls as proposed it would block access to this right of way.’

The parish council were equally scathing about the plans, stating: ‘The Parish Council OBJECTS to this application.

New home: Mark and Michelle put in a new planning application to make the estate more secure by surrounding it with a ‘rendered wall’ but this was denied 

Mark explained: ‘They were my boundary trees to give me a little bit of privacy, and the company blamed it on the soil because obviously the wrong soil can make your plants go bad’

‘The design of the height walls, together with the pillars and the gates, are out of keeping with the rural setting, and would detract from the rural nature of this particular area of the Parish.

‘In addition, a public footpath currently runs through this property, and whilst we understand there may be possible applications to alter this in the future, we could not at this time support a planning application which would effectively block a public right of way.’

Both councils had no objection to them adding a wooden gate with rendered piers.

The couple bought the home for £1.3 million in October 2019 and it was revealed in January 2020 that they planned to rip it down to create the sensationally lavish new house with ‘classical design’. 

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