Earl fights Candys in battle of barracks

The grandson of Harold Macmillan, the early 1960s Tory Prime Minister, has joined the battle to prevent hotshot London property developers Nick and Christian Candy (pictured) from erecting a high-tech block of flats in Chelsea. The Earl of Stockton, a Tory MEP who also lives near the proposed development, is aghast at Candy & Candy's plan to put up 320 apartments on a plot of land that was formerly the Chelsea barracks, and he's not too happy about the proposal to put the same amount of so-called "affordable" flats in drab blocks next door.

In a stiff letter to the local council, he writes: "I will fight you with all my strength to take away this piece of Candy from our children and grandchildren."

The Candy brothers' plans, which will be considered by Westminster Council's planning committee on September 4, have already come under fierce attack by several other prominent residents of Belgravia and Chelsea, including the Duke of Westminster, whose billion-pound Grosvenor estate it abuts.

The Candy brothers are accused of cramming more onto the site than is reasonable to make up for having paid £1 billion (the next bid was said to be at least £250m less) for the land, failing to provide a proper park as the council wanted and segregating the affordable homes behind a barrier of trees.

The Earl adds that the proposed scheme amounts to an insult to the memory of the young men who left Chelsea Barracks to fight for their country and did not return.