COUNCIL officials set to demolish a barn built to look like a house were thwarted when owner Charlie Cunningham did the job for them. Mr Cunningham acted after reading in last week s Wisbech Standard that he could be facing a bill for up to £40,000 if Wes

COUNCIL officials set to demolish a barn built to look like a house were thwarted when owner Charlie Cunningham did the job for them.

Mr Cunningham acted after reading in last week's Wisbech Standard that he could be facing a bill for up to £40,000 if West Norfolk Council carried out the work.

With no prospect in site of him being allowed to keep the barn in tact at Wheatley Bank, Walsoken, he moved in demolition equipment at the weekend to raze the building to the ground.

The council had won a legal battle to have the barn cum house knocked down, but were waiting for the final go ahead next month.

Mr Cunningham had been given until last December to comply with an enforcement notice after he had exhausted the council's appeals procedures to be allowed to keep the barn.

A West Norfolk Council spokesman said this week: "It is news to me that the barn has come down. We would like to have been there for it."

Council officials said the barn looked too much like a house for it to remain: Mr Cunningham had put in windows, domestic sized doors, cavity wall insulation, gate posts and added, as a finishing touch, ornate iron railings.