A PLANNING chief who broke the rules to make unauthorised renovations to her listed home has been ordered to pay £115,000.

Barby Dashwood-Morris – the former chairwoman of Wealden District Council’s planning committee – made illicit changes to her 14th century Grade II listed home in Hellingly while at the same time dishing out rulings on how other people could change their homes.

Dashwood-Morris, 70, and her partner Alan Proudfoot, 54, created a grand entrance hall with a glass staircase that caused a “substantial erosion to the historic details” of the house.

Yesterday, Dashwood-Morris was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay half of the council’s £80,000 legal costs.

District Judge Tereza Szagun said she considered Dashwood-Morris’s position on the council an aggravating feature leading to her being more harshly punished than her former partner.

Proudfoot was fined £48,000 and ordered to pay his share of costs.

Judge Szagun said: “It is inconceivable that intelligent and intellectual individuals such as these defendants would not have thought that extensive renovations and alterations went well beyond what the statutes allow.

“I’m quite sure both defendants were fully aware of the requirement for consent.

“Miss Dashwood-Morris’s case is further aggravated by the fact that no steps were taken to rectify the situation given her later position on the council.”

Dashwood-Morris had claimed she believed the works did not require listed building consent.

Saira Kabir Sheikh, prosecuting, said Dashwood-Morris had been a member of the parish council from 2003 and of Wealden District Council from 2007.

She said: “If she was not initially aware listed building consent was needed she must have become aware by chairing that committee.”

The former couple made “irrevocable” changes to the priest house.

One feature removed was thought to be a priest hole – a hiding place for catholic priests during persecutions. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, catholic priests were often imprisoned, tortured and even killed.

A servant’s entrance added in the 18th century – which was described as an important architectural feature showing the social history of the time – had been replaced near to the grand entrance hall.

Dashwood-Morris, who still lives in the Priest House in Church Lane, previously admitted six counts of making alterations to a listed building without consent.

Proudfoot, who now lives in Chemin des Pradelles in Provence, France, pleaded guilty to four similar charges.

Dashwood-Morris owns 56 per cent of the house, now thought to be worth in excess of £600,000, and has more than £200,000 in savings.

Proudfoot still owns 44 per cent of the Priest House as well as a £621,000 share of his house in France.

He has more than £420,000 in the bank.