Overview
- The Planning Inspectorate dismissed the homeowner’s appeal on Wednesday and upheld Wakefield Council’s enforcement notice ordering the statue’s removal within four weeks.
- Owner Adele Teale removed the four‑foot resin gorilla, nicknamed Caesar, to comply with the notice and has arranged for it to be displayed in a large Mayfair store.
- Wakefield Council and its planning officer concluded the figure required planning permission because of its size, degree of permanence, and physical attachment to the house.
- Teale mounted a petition that gained more than 1,000 signatures and said the statue had served as a local landmark after previously standing outside her Leeds home for about 15 years.
- Under UK planning law, items that are sufficiently large, fixed or permanent can be classed as development; the council had offered moving the statue into her garden as an alternative to removal.