Tycoon Trevor Adams has submitted plans for a grand house dubbed 'Buckingham Palace' in Burley

Now Hampshire property tycoon Trevor Adams has submitted plans for a suitably grand house that has been dubbed “Buckingham Palace” by locals opposed to the scheme.

Mr Adams wants to build a Palladian-style mansion with eight bedrooms, a swimming pool and a moat.

But the former Bashley FC boss has angered people living near the proposed site, which occupies farmland in the New Forest village of Burley.

Critics claim the huge, cube-shaped development has no place in the Forest – still largely an area of ancient cottages and small Victorian homes.

The application is one of two which have sparked fears that Britain’s newest national park is being targeted by multi-millionaires determined to bulldoze existing homes and replace them with luxury mansions.

The Forest, once a collection of poor agricultural communities, is noticeably short of stately piles.

Two of the exceptions are Palace House, Beaulieu – ancestral home of the Montagu family – and Somerley House, Ringwood, owned by the Earl of Normanton.

Both buildings are old, attractive properties that have become an accepted part of the Forest scene.

But anyone attempting to build a 21st century equivalent is guaranteed to face stiff opposition.

More than 60 people wrote letters of objection after Mr Adams’s plan, which includes the creation of parkland, was submitted to the National Park Authority (NPA).

An accompanying statement by the architect, Robin Bryer, said the land was currently occupied by buildings that left much to be desired.

He added: “The site would best accommodate an elegant country house while the farm itself, already park-like in appearance, also calls for the creation of true parkland. They would together, one trusts, enhance both the New Forest and its national park.

“One only has to look just beyond the Forest’s fringe to find one of the finest examples of such a building, that of Thomas Archer’s Hale Park.

“Otherwise the area is largely bereft of fine examples of country houses in the classical style. It was surely, I boldly reasoned, time for another.”

PICTURED: The seafront mansion that billionaire businessman Jim Ratcliffe wants to build near Beaulieu

But Burley Parish Council was not impressed.

In a letter to the NPA it described the proposed development as a “mildly re-worked pastiche of the Palladian principles to be found around the country as a whole”.

One of the other objectors wrote: “We don’t want Buckingham Palace in Burley.”

NPA planning officers said the authority’s design guide “expects new development to fit comfortably within its surroundings and respect the scale of neighbouring buildings”.

Their report added: “This proposal would have conspicuous bulk and would be located in a prominent position.

“The design does not appear to have taken any references from the character of its surroundings, creating a somewhat intrusive building which would be highly visible in wider views of the area.”

The NPA rejected the application, but Mr Adams has lodged an appeal in a move likely to prompt another round of objections.

Now a government-appointed planning inspector will decide if Burley is the right place for an 18th century-style property with what the NPA calls a moat. Mr Bryer describes it as a basin designed to catch rainwater, which would then be recycled.

It follows a long-running row over whether one of Britain’s richest men should be allowed to build a seafront mansion near Buckler’s Hard.

Billionaire businessman Jim Ratcliffe, founder of the INEOS chemical company, has spent years trying to obtain planning permission to bulldoze a bungalow overlooking the Solent and replace it with what he describes as a “next generation” property.

Mr Ratcliffe is seeking consent to build a home that can be raised off the ground to protect it from rising sea levels.

The design includes scores of hydraulic jacks that will enable the property to literally rise above the the problem of climate change.

Various applications submitted by Mr Ratcliffe have been opposed by the New Forest Association, the Solent Protection Society and the Hon Mary Montagu-Scott, sister of the new Lord Montagu.

She says Mr Ratcliffe should buy an existing property elsewhere rather than spoil an environmentally-sensitive part of the coastline.

One person resisting the current trend to move into something bigger and better is Lord Montagu himself.

At the time when the likes of Trevor Adams and Jim Ratcliffe are looking to upsize, the 54-year-old peer has decided not to occupy Palace House following the death last year of his father Edward, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu.

Instead he and his wife, the new Lady Montagu, will continue to live in a more modest home elsewhere in the village.