WAVERLEY Council has won a six-year battle over a terrace of four houses built without planning consent at Old Park Stables at Old Park Lane in Farnham.
Councillors in Waverley's western area planning committee were shown going, going, gone photographs, as Cheltenham Cottages were razed to the ground as the result of council enforcement action.
The council had agreed that, other avenues having failed, direct action would be taken to demolish the terrace.
But enforcement officer Gina Pink, reporting the successful conclusion to the long battle with the landowners, said the threat of the £120,000 bill he would be hit with had persuaded the owner to act himself.
"People try to build them and then once they are up they think we are not going to make them take them down," she observed.
The council first served enforcement notices in May 2002, successfully defending an appeal in due course and being awarded partial costs.
More recently consent was refused for the retention of the buildings as an equestrian training centre and riding holiday accommodation.
The owner will be required to remove all rubble and restore the plot to grassland.