He has fought shotgun-wielding gangsters, aliens and even a 75ft-long shark. But it seems that Hollywood hardman Jason Statham, 56, may have bitten off more than he can chew… after coming second best in a planning spat with a dyslexia education charity.
Statham objected to the construction of a workshop in the garden of a property near his £5 million mansion in an exclusive South London neighbourhood – as it appeared to use ‘standard Velux’ skylights.
But, despite the objection, planning chiefs granted permission for the work in the grounds of the Grade II-listed mansion that houses the charity.
Southwark Council planning documents reveal the objections: ‘The skylights directly look up to one of the bedrooms… They also look like just standard Velux and not the conservation skylights we had to use for our property.’
The Fast & Furious star and his model fiancee, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 36, also feared they had missed the chance to object to the work because they were ‘away on holiday’.
Posts on social media show the pair had been to Turkey, Antwerp, in Belgium, and the Maldives in the weeks before the decision.
Permission was granted for a workshop, greenhouse and tool shed to be built in the grounds of the £10 million Georgian mansion which houses the charity that helps people with dyslexia.
It is not the first time the celebrity couple, who became engaged in 2016, have been drawn into a planning dispute with neighbours.
In 2021, they won permission to chop down a 25-year-old cherry blossom tree in the front garden of another of their properties – a £7.5 million townhouse in West London – despite neighbours’ arguments that it ‘assists privacy’.
When the pair – who have a son aged six and a daughter aged one – returned to the UK from a period in California in 2021 they were anxious to put down roots, snapping up luxury London homes after selling a £14 million Malibu mansion.
They also said they were keen to be closer to their families.
