IT is good news that Durham County Council leader Simon Henig is taking action to recover the £30,000 to £50,000 of unpaid council tax due for Dominic Cummings’s illegally-built dwellings at North Lodge (Echo, Oct 20).

But I also think that a review is needed of the decision by the council’s planning inspectors that the breaches of planning law “are now beyond the period in which enforcement action can be taken” (Echo, Jul 4).

There are exceptions to this rule. If it is deemed that there has been a deliberate attempt to evade planning controls, the council can apply to a magistrates court for a “Planning Enforcement Order” which, in this case, would allow the Cummings’s to apply for retrospective planning permission, and for any objections to be raised. Surely that would be the best outcome for all concerned?

However, the council’s planning officers decided that there was “no evidence” of “deliberate concealment or deception.”

How did they arrive at this conclusion?

It is totally inconceivable that the Cummings’s didn’t know that planning permission was required, so why didn’t they apply?

I can only think of one explanation. They thought no one would notice, and hoped to get away with it, taking advantage of North Lodge’s secluded location, hidden by trees and secured by locked iron gates.

Surely that amounts to “deliberate concealment?” They should not be allowed to get away with it.

Pete Winstanley, Durham.