Stephen Hendry wins battle to build luxury housing in back garden

Hendry has now been granted planning permission by Perth Council to construct an estate of luxury houses in part of his country estate in Perthshire.

The seven-times world champion wants to create a multi-million pound housing development of 11 homes to the rear of his mansion in Auchterarder.

He and neighbour Alexander Birnie teamed up to apply for permission to build the 11 properties on land which adjoins their homes.

The new properties will be spread between the pair’s large back gardens, which Hendry, 43, currently uses as a horse paddock and stables.

The move is not popular with some residents in Auchterarder, who fear that it will invade their privacy and spoil the natural beauty and peace of the area.

But Perth and Kinross Council this week granted planning permission in principle for the scheme – subject to certain conditions.

Planning officials recommended that the land was “appropriate for residential use”.

However, they said that the current proposed layout of the homes was not in keeping with the surrounding area and would have to be revised.

The plans were submitted to the council in December by property developer Mr Birnie’s company Craigmount Developments.

Hendry, who has an estimated £11 million fortune, lives in the town with his wife Mandy and their two sons.

The couple already had planning permission for two homes on their land but construction work has never started.

They have now joined forces with Mr Birnie to build the larger development.

However, work on the new homes cannot start until the council is satisfied that its conditions have been met.

Drawings submitted last year for a planned house on Hendry’s land show a large, two-storey, four-bedroomed property. The proposed house has a massive snooker room at the rear in addition to a studio, a TV room, a drawing room and an inbuilt garage.

Neighbour Kenneth Orr, 73, whose house backs on to the proposed development, objected to the proposal.

He said: “The privacy, amenity and view that we enjoy at present will inevitably be prejudiced by the proposed houses.

“We consider the whole character of the area would change from that of an essentially rural environment to one which is densely developed in a manner inappropriate to the surrounding area.

“The area is absolutely beautiful in terms of the visibility I have right up to the Grampians and we thought we were very lucky to find this house.”

Another neighbour said: “There has already been permission for another large development at the other side of our house.

“Ideally, we don’t want any more houses near us, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

“It will also be a pain to have so much construction nearby.

“However, they may only get built if other houses in the area start selling and, given the state of the market, I suspect progress could be very slow.”

Born in South Queensferry but brought up in Fife, Hendry was the youngest-ever world snooker champion at the age of 21.

He has won the world championship a record seven times and was snooker’s number one for eight consecutive years between 1990 and 1998 and then again in 2006-7.

A love of golf was one of the things that drew Hendry to set up home in Auchterarder, which is near the world-famous course at Gleneagles. The snooker player has a single-figure handicap.

Last year, Hendry’s company, Stephen Hendry Snooker Limited, was wound up. He had used the firm to manage his cashflow since he burst on to the snooker scene at the age of 15.

Last night, Hendry was unavailable for comment.