Farmer builds castle with no permit and hides behind hay for years

A British farmer built an entire literal castle behind a screen of hay bales and lived there concealed for four years to evade planning regulations. Apparently in England, if you get away with building without a permit for four years they can't make you tear it down--weird. See the full story in at Dailymail.co.uk, and it includes plenty of pictures of the guy's house. The article is pretty entertaining, includes commentary from the bureaucrats stating that he "built the house without planning permission, not sought retrospective planning permission." So the arrogant jerk not only didn't bother to get the permit but failed to pay for the retroactive permit after he was caught. Keep in mind that the planners do the same over here as well, retroactive permits show it isn't about safety or a legitimate purpose but instead just a revenue generator.

I guess the moral of the story is that he should have left the hay wall up, as apparently nobody had a complaint about a 40 foot tall rotting wall of hay covered with aging blue tarps flapping in the wind--that's OK, but that Tudor style castle is an unacceptable eyesore that has to go because you didn't pay for that retroactive permit.