A 40 feet high cabin has been built in the garden of an Airbnb rental property in Rhos-on-Sea, North Wales, which has caused fury among neighbours who want it torn down
An Airbnb owner has built a huge 40 feet high “prison-camp watchtower” in the garden of the home to the fury of neighbours who want it torn down.
The “monstrous” structure was built at the £5,000-a-week holiday let without planning permission – and furious neighbours say it’s disturbing their day-to-day lives in a seaside town. A bid to get planning permission for the towering “garden room” was turned down last year but a new one has since been made.
Neighbour Nick Whitmore, 35, lives with his partner and three young children and says their “dream home” had been marred by it. Nick has had the property since November 2021, and said the platform along with the cabin overlooking his garden in Rhos-on-Sea, North Wales, was built in January last year.
Nick said: “It’s advertised on Airbnb year-round, bringing noise, light pollution, and worse. The impact on my partner, our three children, and our neighbours is horrendous. The structure dominates our house and garden, as well as our neighbours’. It looks into my daughter’s bedroom.
He added: “We are a local, hard-working family with three children under the age of 10. My partner and I worked very, very hard to buy our dream home, just up the road from the children’s school, various public parks, with a bedroom for each of our children, and a nice garden for them to enjoy.
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“This has now been taken away from us as we back onto a busy Airbnb and, since Jan 2024, a building site.” The holiday let was purchased by a Sheffield-based property owner in December 2023.
Neighbours reported the structure to the council and JAM Domestic Properties Ltd submitted a planning application – which was refused. The owners described the ‘breathtaking’ £700,000 four-bedroom property as ‘the epitome of luxury’.
Nick said: “We alerted Conwy council who asked the company to stop work. They did, and submitted a retrospective planning application, which was refused in June 2024 after numerous neighbour objections.
“With no appeal by the 16 December 2024 deadline, we thought the council would follow through and move to enforce their own refusal. We assumed relief was near. Instead, two weeks ago, earlier in March 2025, the owner submitted a near-identical planning application.
“We’ve now endured over 15 months of this situation, with Conwy sitting on their hands while local families and residents suffer daily.” Families living next-door are furious at the 13m high ‘concrete plateau’ giving clear views into their properties and blighting their lives.
Work on the tower ‘which would provide panoramic views of the village and neighbouring Penrhyn Bay’ began last year, only to be paused when a planning application was turned down.
The holiday rental ‘called Gardd y Llys’ is a contemporary property in one of the most upmarket residential areas of Rhos on Sea. Conwy Council said it will be considered “on its merits” by officers before a decision on the structure peaking over gardens is made.
The planning statement by Cadnant Planning in support of the proposal for the holiday let in Rhos-on-Sea said it was “not considered to have a detrimental impact on privacy or residential amenity to neighbouring properties”.
Neighbours Stephen and Hazel Walburn also wrote a letter of objection to the council. “The cabin is 13m above our main living area and certainly feels to us to be out of character and overbearing,” they wrote.
“Its scale and appearance are unlike other garden buildings in the area. It fails to enhance the local environment, commanding attention not unlike a prison camp watchtower.” They added: “It dominates the roofscape and is alien and incongruous.”
A Conwy Council spokeswoman said: “Planning permission was granted in 2016 for a smaller garden structure on this site. In February 2024, it was brought to our attention that a larger outbuilding was being constructed.
“Following an investigation by the planning enforcement officer, the owners agreed to cease work and to submit a planning application to regularise the work. An application was submitted; it was refused on 17/06/2024 based on concerns about the impact of the structure on the street scene.
“Following this, the owner employed the services of a local planning agent. Officers have not taken enforcement action at this time as positive steps are still being taken to seek to voluntarily regularise the breach.
“Enforcement action cannot be taken purely to stop an unauthorised development; there has to be sound planning reasons for this to happen and government guidance states that Local Planning Authorities must act in a proportionate way in responding to suspected breaches of planning control.”
She added: “A new planning application has now been submitted, and although the proposal has not changed, the agent has provided additional information which includes a topographical survey, additional site plans, and a supporting statement to seek to overcome the refusal reasons.
“Officers will now consider the merits of the current application. If it’s refused, we will consider serving an enforcement notice.”
