Owner of RIBA award-winning building banned from using property as location for film and photo shoots

The owner of a RIBA award-winning building has been banned from holding film shoots on the premises.

TV producer Russell Harris, owner of Lymm Water Tower in Cheshire, lost an appeal against a ban imposed by Warrington council, which said that using the property as a location for commercial film and photo shoots was in breach of planning rules.

The property, designed by Ellis Williams Architects, took nearly eight years and cost 拢500,000 to build. Comprising a Grade II-listed Victorian water tower, with a glass fronted extension, the home has been used for more than 27 film and photo shoots including for Channel 4鈥檚 Goldplated.

Shoots at the unique property have angered neighbours who say that the film crews were "disruptive". Mr Harris appealed against the ban as the shoots were not replacing the building鈥檚 main use as his home.

However, government inspector Steven Fox dismissed the appeal saying that the shoots represented a 鈥渃hange of use鈥� and that separate planning permission was needed.