Luxury bathroom boss allowed to tear down his ‘tired’ home and build a new mansion

A Teesside businessman has been awarded planning permission to tear down his home and build a new mansion by Middlesbrough Council.

Wayne Spriggs, who owns luxury bathroom company Lusso Stone, wants to replace the ‘tired’ looking Cleveland Cottage, on Brass Cattle Lane near Middlesbrough Golf Club, with a ‘house for the 21st century’.

Steve Hesmondhalgh, the managing director at property consultancy AMS, spoke at Middlesbrough Council’s Planning and Development Committee meeting on Friday, September 10 on behalf of Mr Spriggs’ application.

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He said: “Mr Spriggs currently lives at the cottage. He is a very proudly born and bred Middlesbrough person and over the last seven years developed an extremely successful Teesside business.

“He employs 17 staff and has plans for further expansion of his already multi-million-pound company. His business exports products to over 35 countries around the world and he sits within the Sunday Times Fast Track 100.

“His is a business success story that helps build Teesside’s reputation around the world.”

The new house would be slightly larger than the current home, however, the entrance of the property and the hedgerows around it will remain the same.

Mr Hesmondhalgh added: “The opportunity, through this application, is to create a new home for Mr Spriggs and his family with a good traditional design with some more modern elements, essentially a house for the 21st century.

“I think the result will be an exceptional home and a match for any other larger home built within Tees Valley by industrialists over these few hundred years.”

Despite not opposing the application, Ray Craggs, who is a neighbouring landowner of Cleveland Cottage, raised concern about leakage from the septic tank onto his land.

However, given that there would be no changes to the position of the septic tank from where it currently is, council planners assured councillors that if it was to be moved then Mr Spriggs would need to submit another planning application.

Planning and Development Committee member and leader of the Conservative Group, Cllr David Coupe said: “It’s a shame to knock a building down but looking at the plans I don’t see any problems with it.”

The property has undergone a number of changes since the planning application was submitted in January 2021 to get it to a position where it was agreeable to the council.

The council approved the project at the meeting. however, it is not yet known yet when the new home will be completed.