Cummings’ lockdown cottage may face axe in ‘illegal building’ probe
THE cottage Dominic Cummings stayed at during his lockdown trip may have to be pulled down after council officials launched an investigation into a possible lack of planning permission.
The Prime Minister’s special adviser stayed at the Durham property in early April after he and his wife began suffering coronavirus symptoms.
Birthday
Mr Cummings, 48, was branded a hypocrite for driving 250 miles to the farm with wife Mary Wakefield and their four-year-old son, instead of staying in London.
He claimed that he had been allowed to make the journey north because of “essential childcare needs”.
But police subsequently said he “might” have broken lockdown laws by making a 60-mile trip to picturesque Barnard Castle on his wife’s birthday.
Mr Cummings insisted he made the original journey to County Durham to stay on his elderly parents’ farm in case he needed childcare, isolating in an adjacent cottage which he described as “sort of concrete blocks”.
But after insisting the family stayed there rather than putting his vulnerable parents at risk, council planners are now probing whether it has been legally built.
It is understood his father bought the farm, situated on the outskirts of the city, in 1999.
Two years later, permission for the erection of a pitched roof structure over an existing swimming pool was granted.
But other than tree-felling, this is the only planning application related to the address on the council’s planning portal.
Durham County Council said in a statement: “We have received a number of complaints and are currently looking into the matter.”