Tycoon wins battle to build garage for 20 cars worth $6m — complete with lift and games room
A car sales tycoon worth millions has endured a nearly decade-long battle with his home. And now he’s finally learned his fate.
A car sales tycoon worth more than one billion dollars has won a battle to build a huge extension for his 20 vehicles.
Peter Waddell was given the green light to build the showroom at his £20m (AU$40m) mansion for his fleet of swanky cars.
The 58-year old resides in one of the standout Holwood houses in southeast London.
The home also includes a swimming pool complex, two gyms, a cinema, music room and tennis court and sprawling parkland gardens.
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And the tycoon will have some extra space to accommodate his 20 supercars, which are estimated to be worth well over £3m (AU$6m).
The multi-millionaire has been battling to get the garage approved, lodged a string of planning applications since 2015.
Officials at the local council refused to grant permission to the homeowner, labelling it an “inappropriate” development on green belt land and a “disproportionate” addition to the property, the Sun reports.
But following an appeal to a government planning inspector, the plans have finally been approved.
Mr Waddell, who is deaf and dyslexic, left council care at 16 and after a year of living rough on the streets of Glasgow, moved to London.
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After starting his working life as a taxi driver, he went on to build Big Motoring World, Britain’s biggest second-hand car empire, selling 60,000 motors a year.
Today he is worth more than £500m (AU$1bn) after branching out into property and haulage. However, it hasn’t always been glitz and glamour for Peter.
“I haven’t spoken to my mother in probably 50 years.” Mr Waddell previously told The Sun.
“I think my mother had a nervous breakdown.
“She scarred my whole body, attempted to cut my hands off and smashed my head.
But the tycoon has turned his life around.
His business, which specialised in high-mileage BMWs, expanded until it was selling 5,000 second-hand vehicles a month from sale rooms all over the south of England.
All the cars, bought from auctions, were checked and prepped for sale at a £10m (AU$20m) former diesel engine factory in Peterborough, Cambs.
The company employed 1,400 workers, most of whom Peter knew by name, and he says: “I worked from four in the morning until midnight, seven days a week.
“My life is not all about being a CEO sitting on a chair in an office.
“That wasn’t me. If a job needed doing, I’d do it.”
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Parts of this story first appeared in The Sun and were republished with permission.
Originally published as Tycoon wins battle to build garage for 20 cars worth $6m — complete with lift and games room
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