Attack of the megasheds: The homeowner who has lost more than half a million pounds as 1.17million sq ft warehouse for The Range ruins views of rolling farmland
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A horrified grandfather says £600,000 has been wiped off the value of his home and rental properties after a massive warehouse used by The Range sprung up beside his land.
Ken Lungley enjoyed spectacular views over Suffolk countryside until work began on the 1.17 million sq ft 'megashed'.
Now the sprawling building used by the variety store and garden centre retailer 'blights' the area and has caused the value of his retirement investment to collapse from £1.5 million to just £900,000.
In a further blow, the local council has approved an even bigger warehouse beside the commercial site, which Mr Lungley, 79, fears will further slash what his nest egg is worth.
He is powerless to do anything about it and told the Mail: 'You can't stand in the way of progress - but not in my back garden.
'It was all nature. Now all I can see is the warehouse roof and a big sign that says 'The Range'.'
Divorcee Mr Lungley bought an acre of land with five barns in Creeting St Peter, near Stowmarket, in 1990 for £65,000 and converted four of them.
One became his four-bedroom home and another is now a four-bedroom holiday home which he rents out for £1,500 for three nights or £2,000 for a week.
The third structure houses a 28x14ft swimming pool that can be rented for £40 an hour and there is also a long-term rental property which brings in £1,150 per month.
The businessman, a father-of-two who ran a scaffolding company in London for 50 years, has sunk around £500,000 into the site over the years and intends passing it on to his family one day.
But the idyllic setting was changed forever when approval was given for the warehouse after a local farmer applied for permission.
'I have it valued every now and then because estate agents are always offering free valuations,' said Mr Lungley, who lives in his home with his two dogs.
'It went up and up and up [in value] and three years ago I had it valued and it was worth £1.5 million. Then when this building went up, I had it valued again and it was £1.2 million.
'Now it's gone down again. According to Zoopla it's worth £900,000. If they had built houses on it, it wouldn't be so bad on the eye.
'There are six or seven families in a little group here who complained about it [when the planning request was submitted] but that didn't get anywhere.
'I suppose it's a god send that it's only one warehouse, not ten or 11 little ones which we could have got.
'But another one is going to go up on the other side of a road that runs through the site and it's even bigger. That's lots of warehouses and I think it's 156 acres.
'It used to be farmland. Certainly it's sad to have lost that view because there were deer and hares and everything over there.
'I could look into legal action about blight but I can't get the money.'
Noise pollution hadn't been an issue, he added, but lights were left on all night at the car park until he spoke to the council and enforcement officers were called in.
The land the warehouse is situated on was sold by a farmer and planning permission for a business park was granted in August 2021.
It is run by Gateway 14 Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mid Suffolk Council has permission for 2.36 million square-foot of floor space and is part of Freeport East, a set of low-tax, low-regulation zones given the green light in December 2021.
The Range secured its plot in June 2022 and planning approval for the warehouse was granted in October that year - despite objectors including Creeting St Peter Parish Council.
Parish councillors cited problems including traffic generation, lack of landscape details, noise problems and uncertainty over whether enough parking spaces are included in the plans.
The Range moved into the 'mega-shed' in November 2023.
In May last year, Mid Suffolk Council granted permission to add to the plot, which is the largest business park in East Anglia.
The council and The Range were contacted for comments.
In April, neighbours living in the 'warehouse capital of Britain' spoke of the nightmare of being forced to live in the shadow of massive buildings that they said is like being next to the 'Berlin Wall'.
Northamptonshire has more storage and distribution centres than anywhere else in the country, with massive developments 'constantly' popping up.
But homeowners in Corby had enough and said their lives have been ruined by the huge warehouses towering over their homes.
They compared it to living next to the 'Berlin Wall' or in a 'prison camp'.
A spokesperson for North Northamptonshire Council said at the time: 'Following the court's decision to refuse the claimant's application for judicial review on this case, the claimant then appealed the decision, and this appeal was then refused by the court in late March 2024.
'Due to the ongoing legal conversations around costs, it's not possible to comment any further at this stage.'
However, for those thinking this can't get any worse, a real estate expert warned the UK will need around 2,000 football pitches worth of extra warehouse space in order to meet house-building targets and the growth of online retail, the BBC reports.
Will Laing, a research analyst at Newmark Group, said: 'Given the government's target to build 1.5 million homes in the next five years, coupled with the continued shift to online retail, we estimate 150,000,000 sq ft (13,935,456 sq m) of extra warehousing will be needed over the next 10 years.'
