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An entrepreneur admitted he was “a silly bugger” for building a £100,000 treehouse in the woods.

John Kitson, 42, has been renting out the luxury treehouse – which has one bedroom and one bathroom – as holiday accommodation since building it during the COVID-19 pandemic. The man said having a plan for the striking build would have “limited” his ability to make artistic decisions as work progressed. 

But it’s likely it’ll have to be demolished as Cornwall Council has ordered Mr Kitson to apply for retrospective planning permission.

Speaking to Cornwall Live, dad-of-three Mr Kitson said: “If you are building a house, you know exactly what you’re going to do before you do it. This was a bit like painting a picture.

“You know what you want in the end, but you don’t quite know how you’re going to get there. I wanted to chop, change, adapt and rebuild to make it perfect.”

Advertised as a “cosy couples’ retreat” in Morval, Cornwall, Mr Kitson believes the luxury treehouse is “not bothering anyone”.

Mr Kitson continued: “I wanted it to be a piece of art as cheesy as that sounds.

“It’s not bothering anyone and nobody can even see it.

“It’s very encouraging and a very rewarding thing to do and we’ve got lots of happy faces visiting.”

Cornwall Council said that a retrospective application was required for the building to be used for tourism purposes.

The Cornish Treehouse, as it is named, is advertised as being available to stay in from £195 a night.

Mr Kitson added: “It was a commercial venture and I had a budget but as it went on I fell more and more in love with the project and just didn’t want to compromise it. I fell in love with it and other people fell in love with it.

“I don’t blame the planners for doing their job and I’m delighted people are being supportive. If the worst happens, it happens and I’m a silly bugger.”

The dad was diagnosed with a rare eye cancer and, when the build started, he didn’t know if he would be around to “see the end” of the project.

“I’m in that horrible period of time right now between having your scan and getting your results,” Mr Kitson said.

“That puts things into context a little. It’s one thing taking a tree down but there are more things to life and I didn’t know if it be around to see the end frankly when we started.

“I didn’t want to f*** around and wait for planners while I was well enough to actually do it. It’s a very weak justification and that doesn’t justify what I’ve done but it was the reason for wanting to get on with it.”

“Fortunately I am still here and hope to be here for a long time but I could get a call tomorrow and that could be different. It is all on me and I don’t want planning officers to get grief for doing their job, which is a very difficult job and they are entitled to make that decision.

“At the end of the day this is one sustainable development and I hope the planner will see that and weigh that against any objections he or she has.”

Cornwall Council said it cannot comment on live applications.

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