Regional scoops nationals with Cummings council tax exclusive
A regional daily scooped the nationals to the news that the Prime Minister’s chief aide, Dominic Cummings, and his family have had a potential council tax bill for up to £50,000 written off.
Newsquest daily The Northern Echo reported yesterday that Mr Cummings and his family won’t be made to pay council tax on two homes built on their farm without planning permission.
Two properties, near Durham, including Mr Cummings’ lockdown cottage, were subjected to a planning investigation in June after a series of complaints were made by the public.
Now, the Echo’s investigation has found that Cummings and his family will be liable to pay council tax on the properties in future, but the charges will not be backdated to when they were built.
It comes after Echo reporter Gavin Havery, who broke the scoop, carried out investigations into Mr Cummings’ activities.
Gavin first got wind of planning issues at the so-called ‘lockdown cottage’ in March, a week after Boris Johnson’s top advisor took his infamous road trip from London to Durham while fearing that he and his wife might have coronavirus.
Gavin said: “We were contacted by several readers who told us they had complained to Durham County Council about potential breaches.
“We were also made aware of what looked like thorough, but unsubstantiated, research carried out by Alex Tiffin, who runs a political blog in Scotland.
“He had investigated the planning and council tax issues using websites and believed the Cummings farm was in breach of planning law and potentially liable for council tax.”
Cummings grew up on the Northern Echo patch and Gavin had carried out previous investigations into his background.
He said: “We were keen to look into these allegations further and started doing our own research.”
That research took more than four months and included conversations with MPs, councillors and two independent planning experts.
Eventually Gavin’s dogged persistence landed him a copy of the planning report confirming breaches at the site, despite being repeatedly denied access to this by the council.
This week Gavin was supplied with evidence two new properties at the site had been added to the council tax list, which was put to the local authority.
Confronted with the evidence, they confirmed the story — and landed the Northern Echo one of the regional scoops of the year.
It landed on editor Karl Holbrook’s second day into the job at the title and resulted in a record-breaking day for the 150-year-old newspaper.
He said: “The Northern Echo has proven again that for in-depth, investigative and fearless journalism we have been there for generations and we will be there for generations more.
“Gavin’s exclusive is a great piece of journalism, which has been recognised now by all the nationals that have been scrambling to chase the story all day today.
“It helped power one of the biggest days in our history, certainly in terms of article page views, and comes hot on the heels of a real digital transformation for us.
“In recent months The Northern Echo has undergone a major digital shift, which is a credit to the hard work the team has put in over a long period, and in my first week we’ve already had our highest ever traffic day and topped the charts for page views and unique users across the whole Newsquest stable.”
