Residents living near Ashe Park in Basingstoke, Hampshire, have slammed plans to demolish the multi-million-pound mansion as "awful" and "such a waste". Owners Shuk Ting Sharon Leung and Gillian Sin Hang Ho sought permission to pull down the 17th-century property, where beloved novelist Jane Austen attended balls in her youth, after buying it in October 2022. The couple have been granted permission by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to level the historic house and replace it with a "traditional country house" in the Queen Anne style.

Council officers green-lit the demolition after concluding that the mansion had become "tired and unmanaged" and lacked "architectural merit". The decision was made despite 20 objections from members of the local community, who criticised the loss of a landmark that had "been part of our history for so long".

Sue Headley, 74, told The Telegraph: "It is a lovely building although sadly neglected in recent years, deliberately, one assumes.

"It is awful to buy a building and do nothing with it," she added. "I would like to see it restored."

Retiree Caroline Sykes, 67, who also lives nearby, added: "I just think it is such a waste.

"It is not a listed house, which does not work in its favour, but it has got historical interest. It just seems a shame to remove that bit of history."

Jane Austen grew up in the Hampshire village of Steventon in the late 18th century and is thought to have attended balls at Ashe Park. The small hamlet, which has a population of around 250, is expected to welcome hordes of visitors celebrating 250 years since the Pride and Prejudice author was born this year.

However, the council cited Historic England as suggesting that the existing mansion was not likely to have been the same one Austen visited during her youth due to the "extent of alterations that have been carried out" over the intervening years.

"Jane Austen refers to visiting the previous Ashe Park in her letters, but there is no evidence that this earlier building is embedded in the current house of 1865, built nearly 50 years after her death, nor that it had any direct influence on her literary output," the planning committee said.

While the oldest parts of the property date back to the 1600s, the modern-day property includes a "party ban" outbuilding, complete with a cinema, as well as a polo ground, seven bedrooms and five reception rooms.