Christian Horner and Geri Halliwell receive planning verdict amid neighbour dispute over $12.3m home

Christian Horner

Christian Horner and Geri Halliwell receive planning verdict amid neighbour dispute over $12.3m home

Ex-Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner is still caught up in a planning permission row

By Kerry Violet.

Thursday 19 March 2026 23:00

Former F1 chief Christian Horner and his wife Geri Halliwell have received a formal planning decision as their long-running dispute with neighbours over their multimillion-pound property continues.

The couple have been locked in a disagreement over planning permission for several years, with residents in the village of Marston Saint Lawrence voicing growing concerns about the proposed changes.

Their $13..2 million home, located near Banbury on the Oxfordshire border in, has become the centre of repeated planning debates in recent months, keeping tensions simmering within the local community.

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Their many disgruntled neighbours have publicly spoken out to state they were not in favour of the property's pizza oven, gazebo and oak-framed pergola, though that didn't stop the celebrity couple from submitting new planning applications.

They had previously lost a battle over the structures found in the garden of their countryside home, with the issue being that the pergola lies in direct sight of a Grade-I listed church, and therefore impacts a previously 'unspoilt view' of the historic building.

Horner & Halliwell 'Pizzagate' row continues despite winning battle over 'illegal' build

In the recent report over the new planning submissions for the pergola, council case officer Forrest Childs concluded: "Due to its siting, scale and design it is considered that the proposed development would be sympathetic to the context of the dwelling and would be compatible with the appearance, character, layout, scale and design of existing dwellings in the area.

"It is also considered that the proposal would provide adequate standards of amenity and privacy for existing and/or proposed residents."

However, a decision over the couple's gazebo and a brick-built pizza oven is yet to be made, with the construction previously labelled 'illegal' following reports that it had been built without permission.

One neighbour even told media that they felt Horner and Halliwell were showing a 'complete disregard' for regulations and that the addition of fairy lights on the partially built structure was their way of 'rubbing our nose' in it.

What is Christian Horner doing now?

Horner is currently taking a break from the limelight he found himself under during his 20 years at the helm of Red Bull Racing.

Having been sacked from the F1 team principal role last July, he is understood to currently be serving gardening leave which prevents him from returning to the paddock with a rival team and sharing any of Red Bull's trade secrets.

But this hasn't stopped rumours rumbling on over a potential return to the sport, with the Englishman having shown interest in gathering a consortium to acquire Otro Capital's 24 per cent stake in Alpine.

This is something that the Enstone-based team's executive advisor Flavio Briatore confirmed earlier this year, saying that 'negotiations' were ongoing.

F1 Christian Horner