Rings star can’t Lord over next door

Sean Bean, the actor who played Boromir in the film adaption of JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, has become embroiled in a battle to build a watchtower seemingly inspired by the fantasy movies at his home in London’s exclusive Belsize Park. The Sheffield-born Hollywood star’s neighbours have voiced grave concerns that the proposals for a leafy terrace on the flat roof of his £4m home in the capital will intrude on their privacy.

The terrace would be surrounded by 6ft glass screens and huge evergreen planters.

But his neighbours in the wealthy neighbourhood in north-west London have complained to the council and claimed that the development would overlook them.

The 54-year-old actor, who rose to fame in the ITV drama Sharpe, has spent two years fighting for permission with Camden Council, and has launched an appeal against the latest refusal to give the go-ahead for the plans.

The original planning application was rejected because the terrace overlooked neighbours and his modified bid with the screens has now been turned down too.

One local said: “This is now the second or third time our neighbour Mr Bean asked to have his terrace on the second floor to be altered.

“We rejected it twice. We felt it impaired our privacy, took light away etc.

“But anyway, he put an array of boxes with evergreen plants on that roof terrace.

“We gave in to that but a glass wall, as low as it might be, gives us the feeling of being blocked.

“Why doesn’t he just erect his desired safe railings and leave the plants there and that is it?”

One opponent who lodged an official complaint to the council wrote: “Terrace very intrusive and prominently sited and highly visible from all round.”

Proposals lodged with planners at the London authority have detailed a second-floor flat roof which Bean wants to turn into a terrace and then screen with a mixture of olive, bay and laurel trees and a glass wall, with double doors leading into a bedroom.

The blueprints were rejected by council planners in late January, who wrote: “The proposed privacy screen would, by virtue of its location, scale and design, detract from the appearance of the host building and fail to preserve and enhance the character and appearance of the conservation area.”

Bean, who is a former director of Sheffield United Football Club and reportedly bought his four-bed property in London in 1998 for £1.5m, launched an appeal against the latest refusal on March 13.

A spokesman for Camden Council refused to discuss individual planning issues, while the architect behind the project also declined to comment.

One of Bean’s most famous roles was as Boromir, the warrior from Gondor, in the first instalment of director Peter Jackson’s critically-claimed film adaption of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.