Location, Location, Location’s Kirstie Allsopp and Ben Anderson are fighting with London locals and their council after complaints about renovations to their new pub
Kirstie Allsopp ’s partner of 20 years, Ben Andersen, is facing a battle against his council and London neighbours.
The Location, Location, Location star’s partner bought a new pub in November 2023, but local residents have made complaints to Kensington and Chelsea council over safety and planning permission concerns. The borough has now reportedly brought in its street enforcement team to check over the premises, but residents don’t seem happy yet.
According to the Daily Mail, one local complained to the council about the external cellar doors being left open and bags of topsoil left outside, noting: “This causes inconvenience for pedestrians and raises genuine safety worries.” They added that the “pavement remains obstructed” outside the pub and is “used for storing construction debris.”
The resident begged the council to “treat this matter with utmost urgency,” sharing their worry that school kids could potentially be unsafe passing the site during the school run.
Alongside safety worries, some locals share their concern that permission hadn’t been granted for all works, with some theorizing that Andersen’s development company was relocating the kitchen into the cellar without authorisation.
One person complained: “Over the Christmas period, I observed considerable quantities of topsoil and large concrete stones being removed from the site – activities strongly suggestive of basement excavation, despite the planning application failing to explicitly acknowledge such intentions.”
They added that the situation was making locals feel like “there is one rule for the Allsopps and another for the rest of us.”
In December, Kirstie’s partner submitted a new application for extra work, and residents claimed he’d filled it in incorrectly. One snidely noted: “Maybe Kirstie Allsop’s got so many places, she’s losing track of her properties faster than I lose socks on laundry day!” The Mirror has contacted Kirstie’s representative for comment.
This isn’t the first time Ben and Kirstie have faced drama with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). The couple share two sons, alongside Ben’s two children from a previous relationship. In August, Kirstie revealed that she’d been reported to the council after she shared that she was allowing son Oscar, then 15, to go on an interrailing trip with a 16-year-old friend for three weeks.
At the time, Kirstie told Times Radio that it was “a malicious call, made by someone who was obviously trying to upset me”. She added: “Social services should have recognised that and dealt with it, accordingly, malicious calls are actually an element with all social services.”
The presenter also called the fact that the council service had the time to call “utterly bizarre”. Kirstie went on to share a theory that her TV fame was to blame for the complaint, saying she didn’t think social services would “have treated me in exactly the same way had I been an ordinary member of the public.”
Kirstie shared her shock over the reaction to Oscar’s trip, which he went on to celebrate his GCSEs. She complained: “There’s generations of people who have travelled very freely all over the place, and now there’s this group of people, who are terrified and who are restricting their teenagers.”
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