EXCLUSIVE Is this Britain’s worst extension? £300K new-build home is blasted for blocking 125-year-old historic railway arch… and wait until you see their view

• EXCLUSIVE: Council launch probe to see if extension was built illegally

A new-build homeowner has been blasted for their ‘outrageous’ extension that blocks a historic railway arch.

The modern detached house encroaches on the entrance to a 125-year-old stone arch under which trains used to cut through Heckmondwike, West Yorks.

After being panned as an example of poor urban design on Twitter, now X, council officers are now investigating if its single-storey extension was built in breach of planning laws.

The £300,000 four-bed home was among around 70 built in 2007 on the former site of the Heckmondwike Spen railway station, which was demolished in 2006.

The boundary of the property creeps just under the Victorian-era tunnel with windows facing straight into complete darkness.

An ‘outrageous’ new-build home extension built partway across a historic railway tunnel is being probed by Kirklees Council in West Yorks

The modern detached house partially blocks the entrance to a 125-year-old stone arch under which trains used to cut through Heckmondwike, West Yorks

Kirklees Council said it is investigating whether the extension may have been built without consent and warned it will ‘take action’ if required

When approached by Mail Online, the homeowner declined to comment but said the extension was built ‘donkeys years’ ago.

However, Kirklees Council said it is investigating whether the extension may have been built without consent and warned it will ‘take action’ if required.

Cllr Graham Turner, cabinet member for finance & regeneration, said: ‘The residential development was approved in the early-mid 2000s, pre-dating the current national and local planning policy, the Kirklees Local Plan.

‘The single-storey extension that projects towards the tunnel may have been built subsequently and without planning permission.

‘However, due to its size, it may be permitted development. To date, the council has received no complaints regarding the extension. However, we will investigate and take action that may be required.’

Local resident Adrian Walsh, 55, said he was ‘baffled’ that the house was allowed to be built.

He told MailOnline: ‘The house doesn’t fit in with the surroundings at all.

‘You’ve got all this wonderful history of the old railway and then they’ve stuffed a new-build house in.

‘It’s been here for a long time – it must be more than a decade. But you can’t really say that it’s blended in over the years.

‘It still sticks out like a sore thumb.

‘God knows what the planners were thinking. I think if an application like this went in now, they’d probably make a different decision.’

Former shop worker Alison James, 62, said: ‘It’s not especially sensitive to its surroundings and it must be strange to live in there and have to look out down a tunnel.’

The extension, which has windows that peer down the tunnel, has been slammed after a picture of it was shared online

One person wrote: ‘The UK looking more and more like a failing and decrepit family-owned theme park with every passing day.’

Another said: ‘I hate it when the reopening of old railway lines is deliberately scuppered by developments like this, but most examples are at least a bit more subtle.’

A poster fumed: ‘How on earth do they get planning permission to do these outrageous things? It looks a total mess and the old tunnel is ruined too.’

The old railway line opened in 1900 and cut through Heckmondwike under a series of bridges in what is widely regarded as an example of impressive Victorian engineering.

Heritage campaigners said the house ‘serves to further devalue the heritage’ of the tunnel.

Graeme Bickerdike, a member of The HRE Group of engineers, heritage campaigners and greenway developers, said: ‘The housing at Heckmondwike occupies a former station site, with a foot and cycle route passing through it northwards to reach a fabulous series of stone arch bridges over the old line.

‘Provision has been made for the route to be extended southwards, past the house at the tunnel entrance.

‘However, the proximity of the building will make the tunnel darker and feel less secure if the route is ever developed.

‘It also serves to further devalue the heritage asset.’

Heritage campaigners said the house ‘serves to further devalue the heritage’ of the tunnel

The partially blocked tunnel leads to a path that runs under a series of railway bridges

The old railway line opened in 1900 and cut through Heckmondwike under a series of bridges in what is widely regarded as an example of impressive Victorian engineering (archive photo of Heckmondwike railway station)

Spen Valley Civic Society member Erica Amende told how campaigners are pressing the council to back plans to open up the tunnel as cycle route 

Mr Bickerdike added: ‘For decades, disused railway land – particularly in urban settings – has been seen as a development opportunity, for understandable reasons.

‘But as we seek to adopt more sustainable forms of transport, the loss of these corridors is proving to be shortsighted in many cases, resulting in the cost of repurposing them to meet our future needs becoming unsustainably high.

‘Although the broader social value of such sites is increasingly being recognised through local plans, protective policies have often come too late.’

The 50-yard tunnel is accessible via a public footpath running alongside the house but has become a haven for fly tipping and anti-social behaviour.

Its disused condition means people walking and cycling along the former railway line meet an abrupt end and cannot pass through.

The Spen Valley Civic Society has been battling for years to link the two routes.

Member Erica Amende said: ‘People don’t value old things.

‘The house comes right underneath the tunnel and it’s not really in keeping with its surroundings, is it?

‘The windows are looking straight down into the tunnel. There must be some interesting views from the sitting room, or whatever it is.’

Erica told how campaigners are pressing the council to back plans to open up the tunnel as cycle route amid fears that land on the other side could be turned into more housing.

She said: ‘The Spen Valley is one of the slowest roads in Yorkshire – it’s permanently choked with traffic.

‘Extending the Spen Valley Ringway through the tunnel which social media is stressing about, and a few hundred metres more along a cutting would connect the two and provide a great pollution-free off-road alternative for local people.’

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