There goes the King of the South’s “garden shed”

Published: September 14, 2016 at 7:09am

You may remember that King of the South Silvio Parnis’s illegal shed was in the news a little while back. It’s a big shed, large enough for a family of three to live in during the summer months, and it’s got a bathroom and kitchen, too, as sheds tend not to do.

Better still, the King of the South described it for planning approval, which he didn’t get, as a “garden” shed, when it is built on a bare tiled terrace with nary a potted plant in sight. And to add a further twist to his abusive behaviour, he had it built on a terrace which he does not own, but which is part of the ‘common parts’ of a block of flats. Parnis says that an old lady left him ‘her share of the terrace’, but common parts of blocks of flats are indivisible and you cannot simply leave somebody (or sell) your ‘share’ of the hallway, for example, or stairwell.

So Parnis is now in conflict with the other flat-owners too, because imagine if they all went ahead and built their own sheds on the terrace.

Now that terrace has partly collapsed, injuring a girl of nine, and the King, Queen and Dauphin of the South can no longer use their illegal shed. The King of the South is going to have to find another compliant old lady to leave him an actual summer house in her will.

So far, he’s done pretty well out of old ladies, which is probably one reason why a nursing aide, which is what he actually is, with a parliament salary and a wife who never worked gets to live in a manner to which he was never accustomed.

For the background story to Silvio Parnis and his shed, read here.

Silvio Parnis's shed, built on the terrace which collapsed.

Silvio Parnis’s shed, built on the terrace which collapsed.

Silvio Parnis

Silvio Parnis