Planning Jaws: Homeowner with 25ft shark in his roof fights council bid to give it listed status

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the council chamber…

A man with a 25ft-long shark sculpture sticking out of the roof of his home has vowed to battle plans to give the building listed status.

The bizarre Headington Shark installation has become a quirky tourist attraction in Oxford since it was commissioned in secret in 1986 by Bill Heine, who asked sculptor John Buckley to add it to his home in protest against planning restrictions.

Following Heine's death in 2019, his son, Magnus Hanson-Heine, 34, is taking on his father’s legacy, insisting it won’t be granted listed status.

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Oxford City Council has asked residents to comment on 17 potential new additions to the Oxford Heritage Asset Register - and the shark in the roof is one of them.

Inclusion on the register “helps to influence planning decisions in a way that conserves and enhances local character”, the council says.

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Hanson-Heine fears that if the shark was added to the list then it could be a “stepping stone” towards some kind of national recognition, which could mean more planning controls.

He said this goes against the idea behind the sculpture, which was his father’s “protest against planning restrictions and censorship”.

But he added: “This is academic as I have no intention of removing it.”

The quantum chemist inherited the house from his father it is now a star attraction on Airbnb.

“My father always resisted giving any conclusive answer to the question what was the meaning of it, as it was designed to make people think for themselves, and decide for themselves what is art,” said Hanson-Heine.

“But it was anti the bombing of Tripoli by the Americans, anti-nuclear proliferation, anti-censorship in the form of planning laws specifically.

“I see what they are trying to do and I’m sure it’s very well-intentioned. But they don’t view it now as what it is.

“You grow up with these things, they become part of the scenery and you lose focus of what they mean."

Hanson-Heine, who works at Nottingham University, also said the consultation form asking for responses made it very difficult to dispute anything at all.

He said: “The nomination forms have been, let’s say, lacking in that they do not really provide an option to object to the listing for listing’s sake.

"They ask questions like, ‘Do you think it adds value to the area’ which most people would say, yes it does.

"They have not given the option to say no. They have not truly consulted in that sense."

The consultation period ended last week after the deadline was extended from December.

A decision will then be taken as to whether the nominations should be added to the register.

A spokeswoman for Oxford City Council told Yahoo News UK: “The Headington Shark was nominated by members of the public to be designated as a heritage asset.

“The council sent letters of notice of nomination in November to all owners of property that had been nominated so they could share their views as part of the public consultation, whether this be for or against the nomination. The public consultation closed on 26 January and we will now consider the responses.”

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