A council in the north-east of England has been labelled "ludicrous and short-sighted" for trying to force a family-run sci-fi museum to destroy a Doctor Who Dalek shelter because it did not have planning permission.
Neil Cole, an art teacher, is embroiled in a planning row over his Museum of Classic Sci-Fi, which he set up in the cellar of his Grade II-listed, Georgian townhouse in Allendale, Northumberland. He built a replica of a Dalek and installed it outside his house as an extraterrestrial guard and selfie magnet. To keep the Dalek dry he built it a little wooden shed.
But Northumberland county council's planners ruled that it was out of keeping with the period property and told him to apply for retrospective planning permission.
Last week he concurred and put in the application. He said he was backed by sci-fi fans, one of whom wrote to the council saying its ruling was "one of the most laughable, ludicrous and short-sighted" he had ever heard.
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