Celebrity home front: Sarah Beeny

It seems property renovation projects rarely run smoothly — even for TV expert Sarah Beeny.

Miss Beeny and her artist husband Graham Swift bought crumbling 97-room mansion Rise Hall in East Riding 10 years ago, but now the project is the subject of a planning storm.

The ambitious restoration project had previously put off many buyers except the Property Ladder presenter.

However, when she threw open the doors of a then fully restored Rise Hall to the TV cameras filming Beeny’s Restoration Nightmare, a local councillor questioned whether or not planning permission had been sought for the house.

The local council has claimed no permission was sought for a change of use to a domestic dwelling to what was previously a school.

Miss Beeny says: “We had a dream to bring this beautiful house alive again, to regenerate the area. But now our time is spent filling in forms.”

The couple has planned to use the former stately pile as a wedding venue to help with running costs, but the council’s objections have meant these plans are now on hold. Miss Beeny has, however, put in a retrospective planning application. The house was built around 1820 for the aristocratic Bethells. In World War II it was a searchlight headquarters and then until 1990 it was a Catholic boarding school. It stood empty for several years and by the time Miss Beeny and Mr Swift bought it from Hugh Bethell in 2000 it was severely dilapidated.

Miss Beeny has since made a retrospective application for elements of the work carried out at Rise Hall.