McCririck’s at war with another posh neighbour
MADcAP racing pundit John Mccririck has opened a new front in his on-going war with his fashionable neighbours. Mccririck’s latest spectacular falling out is with former West-end performer Frances ruffelle, the mother of pop sensation eliza Doolittle.
It happened over a protected cherry tree which for years has stood in ruffelle’s garden in London’s celebrity enclave Primrose Hill, a stone’s throw from where 75-year- old Mccririck shares a home with his wife Jenny, aka the Booby.
Last week, ruffelle, 49, a member of Kate Moss’s North London clique, informed the neighbourhood she would be removing the tree, after convincing the council it had ‘major decay’ at the base and was in danger of toppling over.
Mccririck was predictably apoplectic once he got wind of her plans, and stormed over to the property in an (unsuccessful) bid to stop the tree being chopped down.
expletives were hurled and insults loudly exchanged. Beady-eyed curtain twitchers smirked with glee.
‘It’s absolutely terrible,’ he fumes. ‘I went round there to protest, but short of tying myself to the tree there wasn’t much I could do.
‘these days, all you have to do is tell the council a tree is diseased and they’ll chop it down, because if does fall and hurt someone, the council could be sued for millions.
‘I had a look at it and, apart from a
bit of fungi, it looked fine to me. It’s just a financial issue to increase the value of her house.
‘In any part of London, you’d be pleased to have a tree like this in your garden, particularly with the quality of the air around here. The whole neighbourhood is shocked by this.’
ruffelle, for her part, insists the tree had become a hazard and had to be removed on safety grounds.
Meanwhile, McCririck i s still at l oggerheads with his next- door neighbour, publishing bigwig dame Gail rebuck.
The random House boss, whose late husband Philip Gould was Tony Blair’s political guru, has spent the past nine months excavating her basement, much to McCririck’s dismay.
‘ Since l ast december, i t’s been constant noise every single day, Monday to Friday,’ he adds witheringly. ‘It’s just unbelievable.’