Like most people in the public eye, Jonathan Ross is very particular about privacy. Towering yew and cypress trees surround the perimeter of his Grade II listed farmhouse, which he bought for £1.1million in 2005, in the seaside town of Swanage, Dorset.
The 16th Century property, accessed via an imposing wooden security gate, is tucked away at the end of a single-track lane in a leafy residential neighbourhood.
Surrounded by six acres, it has its own orchard, stables, duck pond and an Olympic-sized swimming pool and gym in a former cattle barn.
Locals say the TV presenter, 64, and his screenwriter wife Jane Goldman, 54, aren’t here all year round.
This is, after all, only their second home. They spend most of their time in Hampstead, North London – where their three grown-up children, Honey, Betty and Harvey are based – and go to the South Coast to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life.
‘You don’t see the Rosses very often – mainly in the summer,’ says retired ferryman Dave Mutter, who lives with his wife Sandie in the sought-after spot.
But the couple’s coastal haven, it seems, is under threat.
For a site adjacent to the Ross estate has been put up for sale – and already has pre-planning approval for 92 homes, a percentage of which are likely to be affordable housing.
Jonathan Ross’s home in Swanage, Dorset, which he shares with his screenwriter wife Jane Goldman. It was bought for £1.1million in 2005
The seafront in Swanage, Dorset, which sits on the Jurassic Coast. In recent years, wealthy Londoners have flocked here
The news follows plans for 93 more houses, at another site also adjoining the presenter’s property, taking the total proposed number of new-builds backing onto his land to 185.
What was once a secluded retreat on the Jurassic Coast could, if the plans go ahead, be hemmed in by a housing estate.
Ross was one of more than 50 people who wrote enraged objections to the previous planning application, filed in July, claiming that any development ‘would be very distressing’ to his family.
He added, in a letter printed on Dorset Council’s website: ‘We have bedrooms that face towards the proposed development… We are also concerned about the change to the fabric of local life caused by so many new dwellings in the area, and the direct impact on traffic and amenities.
‘We’ve been approached many times by developers asking to buy our land for the same purpose and refuse because we are conscious of the impact it would have on the entire community.’
Other residents share his concerns, voicing objections to the sale of the £5million, 4.4-acre site on issues ranging from noise pollution to traffic congestion and overloading the sewage system.
But there are others who staunchly support the plans.
As they told The Mail on Sunday last week, many feel it is somewhat rich for Jonathan Ross, who has a reported fortune of £28million and owns one of the area’s most expensive properties to object to new houses, when local families are struggling to get on the property ladder.
Engineering mechanic Robert Lansing, 38, says he, his wife Mandy and their two children were forced out of Swanage to the nearby town of Wareham because of rising house prices.
He says new-builds are sorely needed in the area – for young families just like theirs.
His views concur with the Labour Government, which wants 1.5million new homes built across the country.
Last Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer vowed to stop houses and infrastructure being ‘held to ransom’ by Nimbys and environmentalists. Attacking the ‘blockers and bureaucrats’ who he says have ‘choked off’ economic growth and made home ownership unaffordable, the PM said he would push through reform of Britain’s ‘ruinous’ planning system.
Jonathan Ross with his wife Jane Goldman at the British Academy Game Awards in 2018
Mr Lansing said he would support plans for building new homes in the Swanage area ‘if it means my family can move back to where we were born’.
He explained: ‘We are desperate to move back, if only we could find something we can cope with financially. Jonathan Ross obviously hasn’t got that problem, and just wants to maintain his little bit of heaven in Dorset.’
Mr Lansing and his family aren’t the only locals who feel this way.
‘Given we have an ageing population here, care workers like myself will be in desperate need,’ says Charlotte Sheridan, 29, a mother-of-two. ‘But the steep prices are driving me away from my family and friends because I can’t afford to buy in this area.’
Nor can shop assistant Deborah Price, 39, who’s renting with her husband while they save for a house deposit. ‘There’s an obvious need for more affordable starter homes for families,’ she told the MoS. ‘It’s depressing to see the prospect of buying in the town getting harder as time goes on.’
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People such as Ms Price have seen Swanage, a once-thriving seaside spot on the Isle of Purbeck, change dramatically in the last few decades.
Once, it was an idyll of isolation: 60 square miles of scenic chalk downs, sandwiched between Poole Harbour and the English Channel, with dramatic views of the Isle of Wight.
But in recent years, wealthy Londoners – fed up of the Cotswolds and priced out of nearby Sandbanks – have flocked here, fuelling demand and driving house prices up and up.
Today, the average sale price of a house in Swanage, according to property website Zoopla, is £508,220 – nearly double the UK average of £267,200.
Luxury homes now abound, and even unremarkable properties have price tags to match. A three-bedroom detached bungalow, for example, is currently on the market for £2.85million.
Second home owners such as the Rosses have been blamed for changes in the town, with some residents calling for a ban on holiday lets. The Government’s newly introduced council tax surcharge on second home owners, which comes into effect next April, has also been welcomed.
Jonathan Ross and his wife have been regular visitors to Dorset since the 1980s.
When the farmhouse, which they’d had their eye on for a while, came on the market in 2005, they decided to buy.
Locals nicknamed him ‘The Squire of Swanage’. And at first, he and his wife – who, at the time, had dyed flame-red hair – raised a few eyebrows when they were spotted locally.
But the new resident made efforts to ingratiate himself, frequenting the nearby Anchor Inn, chatting to neighbours on dog walks and introducing himself to allotment owners over the fence.
In 2006, a year after moving in, he counted on residents’ support when he needed planning permission to convert part of his property into a gym and tennis court.
They duly obliged – and the plans went through.
These days, although he’s in London most of the year, he helps at town events, putting his name (and a hefty donation) behind the annual regatta and carnival week.
Jonathan Ross with his wife Jane Goldman and one of their three grown-up children, Honey Kinny Ross, at a screening of the film Barbie in London last year
Landscape gardener Michael Rutter, 56, says it makes a change from other city-dwellers, who have no interest in becoming part of the community – Ross did at least ‘want to be a part of the local scene’.
The presenter was not available for comment this week, nor did he appear to be in residence at his Swanage home.
But if locals who can’t get onto the property ladder welcome the plans, neighbours were grateful to Jonathan for speaking out, citing issues with traffic, schools that are already full and other amenities under pressure.
‘Everyone is upset about it, and Jonathan Ross is quite right to stand up and say enough is enough,’ local Simon Chester, 59, told The Mail on Sunday.
He says there are already long waiting lists for NHS doctors and dentists in the area.
‘This will only get worse if they build even more houses up there without adding any more doctors or dental surgeries,’ he adds.
Montagu Evans, the property consultant behind the sale of the site, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did architect Mountford Pigott, which drew up the plans for the development.
The site only went up for sale last month, and ultimately it will be up to the purchaser to decide what to do with it.
One imagines Jonathan Ross, as well as the rest of the town, will be eagerly waiting to find out.
But inevitably the Squire of Swanage will never be hit as hard as other members of the community. ‘In the end, he will have the money to move on to a new
place if he doesn’t like what is going on,’ says retired ferryman Dave Mutter.
‘We are all stuck here and have to live with the consequences.’