A gran has won her fight to build a £400,000 "Teletubby-style" eco-home in her posh village following a bitter two year planning dispute with her neighbours.
June Titterton-Fox applied for permission to create the three-bedroom home which she claimed would be one of the most energy-efficient properties in the UK.
But the plans, which were announced in 2020, faced opposition from villagers who said the "garish Hobbit house" looked "more like something from Teletubby Land".
Rutland County Council planners originally refused the application for the single storey 'Field House' in the idyllic village of Whitwell, Lincolnshire in February last year.
Officers said the development was "unacceptable" and would be "visually intrusive and impact adversely on the form and character of the area”.
Mrs Titterton-Fox, a county councillor, appealed the decision to the Planning Inspectorate which has now given its approval.
Planning Inspectorate spokesman Dominic Young said the council’s reasons for refusal went against advice outlined in planning guidelines
He ruled: “The state of the art property has been carefully and sensitively designed to the most exacting environmental standards.”
Mrs Titterton-Fox, 62, said she was "delighted" her plans have finally been approved and hopes the building process is quicker than the time it took to get permission.
She had wanted downsize from the five-bedroomed property she currently lives in with husband Andy, 57, to move into a house dug into one of two fields she owns.
She described it as ‘21st Century farmhouse’, which would have its own water supply, waste dealt with on site, and excess power sold back to the grid.
At the time around a dozen residents lodged objections to the planning application for claiming it would be a “blot on the landscape”.
A protest group, named ‘Whitwell Residents’, said they had instructed solicitors to fight the case and were concerned it would set a precedent.
They wrote: “The proposed building would be a real blot on the landscape, and would be in full view from the Grade II* listed church in the village.
"It would sit on raised land, overlooking several of the heritage assets of the village.
“More widely, we feel that, if this application succeeds in receiving planning permission, it could open the floodgates for similar projects gaining approval, thereby diminishing the rural assets of the county.”
The local church, St Michael and All Angels, dates back to Saxon times and has existed on the site since at least the Domesday Book of 1086.
One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, added: "It is not befitting of the village to have a Telletubby-style Hobbit home becoming an eyesore on the landscape."
Mrs Titterton-Fox said previously she felt as if she was being "intimidated" and was upset people would try to scupper her plans in the village she has lived in for 20 years.
The farmer, who has battled breast cancer and had two heart operations, said: “I don’t know why you’d object to something you can hardly see.
"There’s been a concerted programme of intimidation through social media. It’s really sad.
“It’s all a bit hurtful when all we want to do is build one house for us to live in.
“The house puts back into the environment more than it takes out.
“We shouldn’t have to move out of the village we’ve lived in for 20 years just because we want to downsize."
Mrs Titterton-Fox started her farming dream with a few chickens after being inspired by the 1970s sitcom The Good Life, which sees a suburban couple ditch their jobs to become self-sufficient.
She and her husband then began renting two fields near their home in 2002 before buying them two years later.
Starting with sheep, she moved on to rearing rare-breed cattle and pigs, and now sells surplus meat from ‘June’s Farm’.
She says living in "Field House" would enable her to be closer to the animals, making the job of looking after them much easier.
