Latest news with #A22
The Sun
17 hours ago
- The Sun
Inside half-built and abandoned £40m mansion ‘bigger than Buckingham Palace' & owned by a convicted criminal
A £40million mansion in Sussex once said to be the most expensive private house built in Britain for a century remains unfinished – 40 years after work first started. Hamilton Palace near Uckfield, in East Sussex, is owned by notorious property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten and is bigger than Buckingham Palace. 5 5 5 Van Hoogstraten was once dubbed Britain's youngest millionaire and has been locked in a dispute with neighbours of the property for decades. But, 40 years after work on the enormous £40 million mansion began in 1985, it remains no more than a huge shell and has been dubbed the "Ghost House of Sussex." After work halted in 2001, the mansion was mostly abandoned, unfinished and is surrounded by acres of countryside. It's been the subject of immense investment despite the fact that no one has ever lived in it. But despite its scale, there is little to hint at its presence. It is hidden away off of an unassuming junction on the A22 south of Uckfield and the house is completely obscured by a thick wooded area. The closest glimpse you can get on foot is of a gated entrance onto the estate that gives nothing away, aside from a bricked unit and a large, white container. But there is a definite sense of unease. It has been reported that stuck on the gate is a sign, written in capital letters. It baldly states: "High Cross Estate, Private Property, Keep Out." If that's not enough, multiple other signs reportedly warn of "shooting in progress", "dogs running free" and CCTV being in operation. I came home to find my nightmare neighbour knocking down my DOOR – he claimed it was his right to do it The only recent photographs of the property have been taken by drones and older photographs taken on site apparently when work was still ongoing. Those photos show an an eerie building, shrouded in scaffolding and overgrowing foliage, with discarded containers, construction equipment and other items littered throughout the grounds. It doesn't look like anything has happened at the site for a long time. Few have been inside, but one reporter who did, in 2000, when it was said to be two years off completion, described a grand central staircase and reception hall, with lift shafts already installed and expensive stone balustrades and pillars. Who is Nicholas van Hoogstraten? Nicholas van Hoogstraten is a convicted criminal. He is now 80 and goes by the name of Nicholas von Hessen. A Sussex native born in Shoreham, he owns dozens of properties in the area. He is said to have started making money selling stamps as a teenager before moving into property and, by the age of 22, had 350 properties in Sussex alone. In the 1980s housing boom he acquired more than 2,000 properties and had sold 90% of them by the 1990s. Over the past couple of decades, he has been involved in widely reported disputes with neighbours over Hamilton Palace. Low-level lighting had been installed on the roof, where there was to be a garden, and there was space for a fountain below. One entire floor was due to house van Hoogstraten's art collection. Today, the domed roof of the main building still rises over the top of the treeline and remains visible from a distance from the nearest set of houses in the hamlet of Palehouse Common. Locals have previously vented about the large area being left unused and there was a row over a public footpath that ran through it that van Hoogstraten did not want to be used. In answer to those complaints, he was quoted as saying "even the most moronic of peasants would be able to see… that we have been busy landscaping the grounds of the palace so as to prepare for scheduled works". And he has also denied that the house is falling apart. He added: "Hamilton Palace is far from 'crumbling' and was built to last for at least 2,000 years. "The scaffolding only remains as a part of ongoing routine maintenance such a property would require until completion." It has been reported the estate is now owned by his children through the company Messina Investments. 5 5
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pictures show progress of new electrical sub station
A new sub station is being built to improve electricity supply. National Grid is building a new electricity supply point at the junction of Eastbourne Road with the A22 near Uckfield. The site will allow UK Power Networks to connect to the National Grid network, as well as 'improve the electricity supply to the surrounding area and meet increased demand'. Two new substations are set to be built and two new pylons. The works are due to finish in December. Last year, Paul Alchin, project manager for the National Grid, said: 'Balfour Beatty is the main contractor for the project, which is on Eastbourne Road at the junction with the A22. Read more: Decision made on plans for 'unneighbourly and overbearing' house in back garden 'The scheme involves building two electricity substations (one for National Grid and one for UK Power Networks), two new electricity transmission pylons, and the dismantling of an existing grid pylon. 'The development will provide a new connection for our customer, UK Power Networks, and will ensure a continued safe and secure supply of electricity to local homes and businesses. 'We understand our essential work may impact the local community and we'll work hard to minimise disruption where we can. 'We'll regularly monitor construction traffic, vehicle movements, noise, dust, vibration, and light.'
West Australian
06-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
OpenAI scraps plans to change into for-profit company
ChatGPT inventor OpenAI has reversed course on plans to transform into a for-profit company, announcing that it will remain under the control of its original US non-profit entity. The decision follows consultations with state attorneys-general in California and Delaware, who could have moved to block the restructuring. "OpenAI was founded as a non-profit, and is today overseen and controlled by that non-profit. Going forward, it will continue to be overseen and controlled by that non-profit," the company said in a statement. The reversal raises questions about the future of OpenAI's funding structure. Major investors, including Japan's SoftBank, had backed the company on the condition it would transition to a profit-driven model by the end of the year. Chief executive and co-founder Sam Altman told reporters on a call on Monday that SoftBank had no plans to reduce its funding. Microsoft, which has invested almost $US14 billion ($A22 billion) in the company, has not commented on the new plan. The profit-oriented restructuring was originally intended to attract more investors as competition in the artificial intelligence sector intensified. It came after a period of turmoil in late 2023, when OpenAI's board abruptly fired Altman, only to reinstate him weeks later following pressure from investors and staff. OpenAI's co-founders, including Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, originally started it as a non-profit research laboratory on a mission to safely build artificial general intelligence for humanity's benefit. Nearly a decade later, OpenAI has reported its market value as $US300 billion and counts 400 million weekly users of ChatGPT, its flagship product. The non-profit decision marks a victory for Musk, who now runs rival AI firm xAI. Musk has been a vocal critic of the profit shift and has taken legal action to block the transformation. with AP
The Guardian
31-01-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Javier Tebas warns football world not to overlook threat of A22 Super League
The president of La Liga, Javier Tebas, has warned that football cannot afford to overlook the threat posed by A22, whose latest proposal for a European Super League was unveiled in December. Uefa is currently considering how to respond after A22 launched plans for a Unify League, which follows two previous failed concepts. One option is to authorise the plan and let clubs decide whether to jump ship from the Champions League and other existing continental tournaments. There is little evidence A22 could spark a meaningful breakaway despite holding talks with a number of clubs, but Tebas is concerned that a lack of understanding may help an 'elitist' idea gain traction. 'It's not a serious project at all,' he told the Guardian. 'What they're looking for is to generate instability and uncertainty in European football. We have to pay attention to them because the day to day life at a club absorbs you so much that you don't have time to analyse these kinds of approach in great depth. The leagues should really speak out about this problem. 'They're trying to mislead European football so we have to explain that it's not a serious project. If we didn't, some of the clubs could believe it. People shouldn't just think about the format: the sporting model is elitist and oligarchic.' Tebas repeated previous claims that his arch-rival Florentino Pérez, the Real Madrid president who was a key figure in devising plans for the original Super League in 2021 and has clung on to the prospect ever since, is pulling the strings behind A22's most recent scheme. The new model proposes four divisions and a total of 96 clubs in its men's division, with no promotion or relegation. Access would be based on annual performance in domestic leagues. Its financial feasibility is unclear. Uefa has blocked previous super league iterations but had to change its rules for authorising new competitions prior to a European court of justice ruling in December 2022 that found their previous regulations were contrary to EU law. A22 believe Uefa will have to authorise their plan in principle. 'I'm sure they are trying to pressurise Uefa to make some sort of agreement,' Tebas said. 'But Uefa should pay no attention because football will not support this project. They need to ask for clarifications of what's been presented: how does your economic model work and what about the governance? And if they can do that, they should start a consultation process with all the other stakeholders in European football. 'I know A22 have had interviews with some clubs, talked about it and explained it, but nobody has made that step forward. What they want to do is blackmail Uefa.' Tebas also took fresh aim at the expanded Club World Cup. In October, he had asked the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, to scrap the competition and, in a connected development, he was involved in lodging a complaint to the European Commission from Fifpro and the European Leagues against Fifa's imposition of the sport's match calendar. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion 'We'll continue to work so that there aren't Club World Cups, but we'll have to see,' he said. 'I think financially it will be a disaster, but the unions and leagues don't want the sporting model either. It affects all leagues' calendars. The project hasn't thought about the ripple effects on the rest of football. These new competitions and formats are created without even thinking that the real football industry is in the domestic leagues.' Tebas claimed Fifa has offered no response to the complaint regarding the calendar and refused to rule out the prospect of a future players' strike. 'At some moment in time I think things may go overboard,' he said. 'Fifa aren't aware that there comes a point when people get fed up, and then you can't control a situation. This will happen at some point.' La Liga has a close business relationship with Saudi Arabia and, asked whether he endorsed the deeply controversial 2034 World Cup, Tebas responded glowingly. 'I'm sure it will be the most spectacular and best World Cup we've ever seen,' he said.
