{"id":332797,"date":"2025-12-24T05:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T05:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/332797\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T05:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T05:44:12","slug":"love-actuallys-richard-curtis-is-locked-in-a-row-over-a-campsite-in-his-posh-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/332797\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Actually’s Richard Curtis is locked in a row over a campsite in his posh village"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Curtis<\/a> has become embroiled in a row over plans to build a campsite in his upmarket seaside village.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Love Actually<\/a>\u00a0director, 69, has objected to the proposals to install 30 pitches in\u00a0Walberswick, Suffolk, claiming they would ‘wreck’ the ‘remarkable’ area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The village is popular with celebrities, including actress Keira Knightley<\/a>, Walking Dead star David Morrissey and radio DJ Simon Mayo.<\/p>\n

In a letter to East Suffolk Council, rom-com king Richard and his partner\u00a0Emma Freud<\/a>\u00a0said they were opposed to the campsite in the ‘strongest terms’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They said that it would ‘destroy the ecosystem and balance’ of the village, adding that ‘we find this plan so worrying’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The celeb couple fear that if the campsite is built, it would ‘change the nature of the village in the summer months.<\/p>\n

‘It would put pressure on services, increase traffic, and upset the natural balance that makes Walberswick function as it does.’<\/p>\n

Richard and Emma added: ‘Walberswick works because it’s quiet, natural, and low-key \u2013 and because people respect its limits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rom-com <\/p>\n

Rom-com king Richard Curtis and his partner Emma Freud said they were opposed to the campsite in the ‘strongest terms’<\/p>\n

\"Walberswick <\/p>\n

Walberswick in Suffolk is popular with celebrities, including actress Keira Knightley, Walking Dead star David Morrissey and radio DJ Simon Mayo (file photo)\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘This plan risks throwing all of that out. Even if it’s temporary, the impact could be lasting.’<\/p>\n

The proposals have been submitted by landowner Sir Charles Blois, who insists that they are only a ‘modest venture’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The application was lodged with East Suffolk Council in March and was given the go-ahead in November – despite more than 100 objections from villagers.<\/p>\n

The local authority said in its approval document: ‘As local planning authority hereby give notice that prior approval is required and hereby granted for the above development proposed in your application and plan(s) attached thereto.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘This means that the proposal is permitted development and does not require planning permission.’<\/p>\n

Walberswick has been a sanctuary for Emma’s family for the past 90 years – with the Freuds owning a house in the village since they fled the Nazis in the 1930s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They have said, however, that the village is already under siege.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023,\u00a0Walberswick became\u00a0a battleground over ‘green energy’ plans to connect offshore power to the national grid via a 50ft-high substation on a 35-acre site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emma’s cousin, novelist Esther Freud, whose books include Hideous Kinky, took the charge against the proposals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Walberswick <\/p>\n

Walberswick has been a sanctuary for Emma’s family for the past 90 years – with the Freuds owning a house in the village since they fled the Nazis in the 1930s (file photo)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Emma's <\/p>\n

Emma’s cousin, novelist Esther Freud, whose books include Hideous Kinky, took the charge against the green energy proposals in 2023<\/p>\n

She told the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden: ‘They will build a haulage access road the width of the M6,’ adding that, by doing so, the power companies will turn Walberswick into an ‘industrial wasteland, destroying the beach, wildlife and ancient ecosystem’.<\/p>\n

At Esther’s urging, locals packed into the village hall for a meeting with the power companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It galvanized the village,’ she said. ‘They were pretty overwhelmed by the sheer power of the village’s outrage.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in 2022 Richard and Emma suffered another setback when a devastating blaze ripped through their 18-century home in\u00a0Walberswick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fire took hold of the first and second floors as well as the roof space, requiring 14 fire crews to bring it under control.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The semi-detached house is believed to be where Richard wrote some of his best known films.<\/p>\n

The writer is famed for his romantic comedies including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Love Actually.<\/p>\n

He is also known for co-creating with Sir Lenny Henry the British charity Comic Relief, and for his TV credits on Not The Nine O’Clock News, Blackadder, Mr Bean and the Vicar of Dibley.<\/p>\n

Richard revealed in December 2020 that he felt ‘amazingly lucky’ to have a home in Walberswick, and spent the first Covid lockdowns there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was also believed to own a former fisherman’s shack overlooking the beach and windswept marshland on the outskirts of the village.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Daily Mail has contacted Richard and Emma’s representatives for comment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Curtis has become embroiled in a row over plans to build a campsite in his upmarket seaside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,97,96,41526,2277,50,70230,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-332797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-keira-knightley","12":"tag-love-actually","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-richard-curtis","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}