Peter Gillis is also wrong on appeal: an unlicensed holiday villa in Lommel must be demolished.
Lommel –
Camping magnate Peter Gillis also faces an appeal in his fight against the mandatory demolition of an unpermitted villa at the Blauwe Meer park in Lommel. The holiday villa must be on the ground. He is given exactly one year to restore everything to its original state.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 5:39 PM
In June, Peter Gillis defended himself in the Hasselt court against the demolition of the villa suitable for 16 people. “I acted in good faith. At least I always got along well with the previous city council,” he said at the time.
The Hasselt criminal court ruled against Gillis and on Wednesday the appeals court in Antwerp did it again. “It has not been demonstrated that the defendant was misled by his architect and acted in good faith,” the judgment said.
Antisocial
According to the appeal judge, aerial photographs showed that the villa is located in an area where there are smaller structures in terms of size or size, mainly on the neighboring plots. “The existing non-permitted home clearly deviates from the buildings in the area due to its volume. Partly in view of the location of the structures on small plots at short distances from each other, a structure of such size and size is no longer in harmony with the environment, which harms good spatial planning. The scale of the villa therefore constitutes a visual nuisance that is unacceptable in the immediate environment.”
In the judgment, the judge referred to an antisocial attitude and a lack of respect for spatial planning regulations.
Holiday park Blauw Meer in Lommel. — © gvb
penalty
The appeal judge confirmed the verdict in Hasselt on Wednesday. Gillis is given a year to restore everything to its original condition. He must pay a penalty of 150 euros for each day of delay, with a maximum of 250,000 euros. If he did not start it himself, the mayor could appoint a contractor and recover the costs from Gillis.
Now it remains to be seen what the reality star’s next move is. He previously announced that he would turn this into a procedural battle with all kinds of authorities.