Our millionaire neighbours from hell turned their home into
Disneyland: Locals' fury at property developer whose 'Bond villain-style
home is lit up like Cape Canaveral' - after he lost bitter three-year
£1.3m battle to keep his 26ft leylandii hedge
- Mark and Clare Dyer, both 59, have been ordered to trim their 26ft leylandii wall
- The couple, from Surrey, have been locked in planning disputes for decades
By Nick Pisa
A
millionaire property developer who lost a row with neighbours over his
giant 26ft leylandii hedge has been accused of turning his home into
'Disneyland' with its over the top lighting.
Mark
Dyer and his wife Clare, both 59, were dubbed the 'neighbours from
hell' in a three-year row over the hedge, with local GP Andrew Cross who
said it 'blotted out sunlight' and which finally ended in defeat for
them at the High Court yesterday.
Summarising
the case, Judge Dexter Dias KC said: 'While it is said that an English
person's home is their castle, here it's become in some ways a
battlefield.'
Now,
astonishing night time pictures taken by MailOnline show the Dyers'
family home, tucked away in a Surrey hamlet adorned with dozens of
lights blazing, leaving locals comparing it to Disneyland.
While
other houses along the quiet lane have a more modest appearance, the
Dyers' home has a surreal amber glow with lights in trees, on the main
residence, across the chimney and steps leading to an outbuilding.
Neighbour Mr Small said of the
Dyers' home: 'You should see the place at night, it's lit up like
Disneyland, there are lights everywhere and its completely over the
top... It looks like something out of a Bond movie'
Residents David and Susan Small, Dr Andrew Cross and Patricia Webb stand next to Mr and Mrs Dyer's enormous 26ft leylandii hedge
David Small, 82, and his wife
Susan, 78, in the garden of their house, with the Dyers' 26ft leylandii
hedge clearly visible at the back of their property
Clare
Dyer (pictured) and her husband Mark have lodged over 50 planning
applications in relation to their property since 1997 - many of which
were contested by locals
Mark Dyer (pictured) and his wife Clare accused residents in their Surrey village of forming a 'menacing gang' against them
A
neighbour described 'all night parties until 5am and then helicopters
coming and going at all times and some of them flew really low over our
house' (Pictured: Mr Dyer, left, and Mrs Dyer, right)
Neighbour David Small says Mrs
Dyer (pictured) is sometimes seen walking her dogs, but the couple are
otherwise uninvolved in village life in Surrey
Mr and
Mrs Dyer moved into their property, which boasts a pool and tennis
court, in 1997 (pictured that year) but are said to have caused a stir
when they installed a 'permanent helipad' in their field ten years later
From
the sky the stark contrast with other houses in the area is clearly
visible, with the house standing out markedly from the other properties
with its intense illumination.
One row
of lights along the drive is similar to an airport runway and one local
has compared it to Cape Canaveral - the US space rocket launch site.
Last
summer neighbour David Small, 82, defeated the Dyers' in another High
Court case after they wrongly accused him and others of being 'menacing
pensioners'.
Speaking exclusively to
MailOnline, Mr Small, a retired Bank of England executive, said: 'This
guy has made so many enemies – the house is like Fort Knox, there are
cameras everywhere, razor wire and off course the leylandii hedge.
'And
you should see the place at night, it's lit up like Disneyland, there
are lights everywhere and its completely over the top with the rest of
the hamlet, it's unnecessary and they blaze well into the night. It
looks like something out of a Bond movie.
'This
ghastly Dyer man has been tormenting us for 20 years and he tried to
take myself on as well and a couple of the others in the hamlet, but he
lost.
'When they moved in, they were perfectly agreeable, I had retired from the bank and was making kitchens and I made one for them.
'Afterwards I remember Clare
saying, "Whatever you do, don't make an enemy of Mark because he will
come after you legally," I didn't think anything of it at the time but
now I know.
'We even invited them to a party at our house when they first moved in and initially it was fine.
'But then all the planning applications started to go in, and it became a nightmare for people on the lane.
'There
were all night parties until 5am and then helicopters coming and going
at all times and some of them flew really low over our house, which is
400 years old, and the windows and chimney were damaged.'
Dr Andrew Cross, 64, has been
handed victory in the High Court after it was ruled his neighbours' 26ft
leylandii hedge must be cut
Dr Andrew Cross, 63, Patricia
Webb, 77, Susan Small, 78, and David Small, 81, who were dubbed a
'menacing gang' by Mr and Mrs Dyer, pose outside of the High Court
Mr
Small added: 'Eventually I went up to him and said, "Look, this can't
go on, you've only been here a short while, but this isn't on".
'Then
48 hours later we got a legal letter saying I had been abusive to him
and his wife and if it happened again, he would get a High Court
injunction.
'But this is the way he works, if he falls out with anyone, he just gets lawyers involved and it seems so wrong.'
Mr
Small added: 'It must be terribly embarrassing for them because they
live here, and no one will have anything to do with them and they just
don't mix at all.'
In the summer the
Dyers claimed their lives had been 'blighted' by the actions of Mr
Small, his wife Susan, 80, local GP David Cross, 63, and charity trustee
Patricia Webb, 77.
But the four
dismissed the claims as groundless and insisted that any objections they
made to Guildford Council on planning applications were 'genuinely
felt' and motivated by a wish to safeguard an 'area of outstanding
natural beauty'.
The Dyers were seeking
£1.3million in damages plus an injunction barring all acts of future
harassment towards plans for their property which has a pool, tennis
court and tables.
But in July, Judge
Dias handed victory to Mr Small and the others, refusing the Dyers an
injunction, and saying: 'Village life in England is one of the glories
of this country, but a different side of its underbelly is on view in
this case.'
An aerial view of the Dyers'
luxury home. The couple has sought to develop the house a number of
times, including by adding an unauthorised helipad that the council
later ordered them to tear up
The long-established Guildford
GP had drawn flak from the couple after lodging a successful complaint
with the local council in 2021 about Mrs Dyer's high hedge (highlighted
in a planning document)
Patricia Webb said she hadn't
spoken to either of the Dyers in 26 years, but was accused of harassing
Mrs Dyer's tenants at their cottage
Retired
bank executive David Small, 81, and his wife Susan (right), 78, are
also part of the group who challenged the Dyers over the enormous
leylandii tree
They also own a field and two
cottages in Mrs Dyer's name, and friction grew as they lodged more than
50 planning applications with the council, London 's High Court heard
A ground floor plan is among the documents Mr and Mrs Dyer have submitted to Guildford Borough Council
Mr
Small added: 'There must have been 50 applications from them since they
moved in and we used to have a lovely view over field at the back of
his house but then he put up a huge hedge and we felt blocked in.
'The
view was spoilt, and we just don't understand why he did it, I haven't
actually seen him for more than 20 years although I occasionally see
Clare walking the dogs.
'But the last time I saw her she claimed I shouted abuse her which was untrue, and we don't want anything more to do with them.
'The
legal costs were so expensive for our case last summer, I had to borrow
almost £300,000 but we managed to get a good chunk back and are still
negotiating for the rest.
'He lost the
case against us and he's now lost the case with Andrew over the hedge
and now he's suddenly a loser which makes us very happy because it's
very stressful.'
Mr Small said:' We
didn't object to any of the improvements he wanted to make to the main
house, if he wanted to change that into Buckingham Palace that was fine,
but we are fiercely protective over the Green Belt.
'But
he put a maintenance shed up in the Green Belt field at the end of his
house and you just can't do that, it had lights and everything and it
looked awful and that's what we complained about.'
Mr
Small added:' We never saw them at the local pub before it shut or the
village fete – they don't have anything to do with us and it beggars the
question why move here.
'We are all
pretty close knit and a friendly bunch supporting each other, but he has
antagonised so many people that I don't know how he can face living
here.
'It's just such a long running
saga that Netflix could make a film out of the whole thing. It's such an
idyllic place to live but we are not going to let this creep spoil it
for us
