NEW Strictly Come Dancing host Josh Widdecombe was forced to halt work at his listed mansion after he began renovations without planning permission.
The comedian has already splashed some of his windfall on renovating his new family home in Devon.
Josh and his producer wife Rose Hanson wasted no time in beginning work on the listed property, only for planning documents to reveal they had failed to get permission.
In a retrospective application, his agent said it was “regrettable” but confirmed work was immediately “paused” upon realising.
On the application form, Rose confirmed work on the building had begun but had not been finished.
Permission was eventually granted this week by council planners under delegated powers after no objections were received.
The application was in Rose’s name, who previously said on social media she was the boss when it comes to renovations.
She wrote: “He’s good at writing jokes, I’m good with interiors – we stick to our lanes.”
The work includes a range of internal alterations including reopening a historic doorway, adjusting partitions and repositioning architraves.
A supporting statement on behalf of the couple said: “At ground floor level it is proposed to re-open an historic doorway that was blocked with 20th century studwork.”
It added that minor adjustments would be made to the back of the building to incorporate a new door from the garden.
It said: “The enclosed works have no impact on the setting of the building in any way, with the only external change proposed the inclusion of a new door to the garden store.”
They added that internally, none of the proposed works have an adverse impact on the character of the house.
In approving the application, a planning official described the impacts of the proposals as largely “positive” or “neutral”.
The couple moved to the home in Devon after selling their £2.3m London townhouse.
They said at the time they wanted to bring up their two children with more space and be closer to Josh’s childhood home.
Previous pictures of the listed property reveal five ensuite bedrooms and a separate one-bed coach house in the grounds, as well as a huge living room, large kitchen and dining room.
The posh home also comes with two offices, a gym and a wine cellar.
Speaking on the Parenting Hell podcast, Josh had told fellow comic Rob Beckett: “Just to be clear, it isn’t in Crinkley Bottom – it isn’t the house we used to see on Saturday nights on the TV.”
Josh and Rose also owns a £1M holiday home in Cornwall, that they restored and now rent out to holidaymakers.
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SACRAMENTO — As Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Olympics, state lawmakers are raising concerns that potential clashes with President Trump could cause chaos.
State Sen. Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), speaking at a legislative hearing this week on the 2028 Games, expressed concern about Trump’s animosity toward California and questioned whether that could affect the federal financial support that is essential to the Olympics.
“I know we rely a lot on the federal funding,” Rubio said. “Can you assure me that we’re not going to be left in the middle of the planning carrying the bag?”
Rubio was addressing Joey Freeman, the vice president of state affairs for the LA28 Organizing Committee, who testified before lawmakers.
Freeman assured legislators that the organizing committee had a “wonderful working relationship” with the Trump administration. He said the committee successfully advocated for $1 billion in federal funds for state and local law enforcement, and $94 million to boost transportation planning.
LA28 leaders previously projected that the Games will cost more than $7.1 billion. They’ve said the money will come from a mix of sources, including corporate sponsors, ticket sales, merchandise, the federal government and the International Olympic Committee.
Rubio, however, said she remained worried that the federal dollars could fall through.
“As a state, our funding is also stretched thin, and at the end of the day we don’t want to have to step in to save the Olympics,” Rubio said.
Several other concerns were raised during the roughly three-hour hearing, including questions about how to best protect visitors and participants from federal immigration raids. The Trump administration’s increased enforcement actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol last year in the Los Angeles area led to clashes with protesters and widespread concerns about immigrant rights.
Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) said legislators were working on a package of bills to help rein in ICE during the event.
“Immigration is still front and center,” she said. “People are feeling even more worried that they’ll continue to be deported and kidnapped.”
Other lawmakers grilled Freeman for more information about ticket sales. LA28 previously advertised tickets as being affordable for locals, but many shoppers last month were dismayed to find prices in the thousands.
Freeman said he did not have specifics on the community ticketing program, which earned a rebuke from Sen. Laura Richardson (D-San Pedro).
“You’re in an official state hearing and I think you know there was a problem because it was well-publicized in the news,” she said. “The fact that we came to this committee and you don’t know how many tickets were issued, you don’t know how many of those were under $100 — you don’t have the information that we need.”
Paul Krekorian, executive director of the Los Angeles Office of Major Events, chalked up many of the concerns surrounding the games to political negativity. He pointed to the success of the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1932 and 1984.
“You hear the tickets are too expensive, there aren’t going to be enough opportunities, it’s going to be a big disruption, there’s going to be a lot of traffic, the city just went through these horrible fires, how are we going to pull this off?” he said. “I just want to remind all of us — L.A. knows how to do this.”
Kim Ji-mi, an aide to special counsel Kwon Chang-young, attends a press conference at the counsel team’s office in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, South Korea, 04 May 2026. The special counsel team announced that it has found signs a military unit was making preparations for martial law operations in the first half of 2024, well before former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration in December of that year. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
May 4 (Asia Today) — A special counsel team said Monday it has identified signs that South Korea’s military counterintelligence unit may have begun preparing for a declaration of martial law as early as the first half of 2024.
Kim Ji-mi, a deputy special counsel, said during a regular briefing that investigators confirmed indications of early preparations through questioning of officials from the Defense Counterintelligence Command.
She declined to elaborate on who led the preparations or whether specific plans were in place.
The findings differ from earlier conclusions by a separate special counsel team led by Cho Eun-seok, which had investigated allegations of insurrection and foreign conspiracy related to a Dec. 3 emergency martial law declaration. That team charged former President Yoon Suk Yeol as the alleged ringleader, citing a notebook belonging to former intelligence commander Noh Sang-won as evidence that planning began before October 2023.
However, a lower court rejected the evidentiary value of the notebook, ruling that any decision to impose martial law appeared to have been externally expressed no earlier than Dec. 1, 2024. The court said concrete steps toward implementation began only about two days before the declaration.
The court also found that meetings cited by prosecutors – including a presidential residence dinner in December 2023, a series of gatherings with senior military officials through August 2024 and other meetings in Seoul – could not be directly regarded as preparations for martial law.
Separately, the special counsel team said it would impose a one-month pay reduction on an investigator who posted investigation-related materials on social media. The investigator had uploaded photos including a certificate of appointment and a suspect’s signed statement, which have since been deleted.
The team said it questioned two suspects and 43 witnesses last week as part of the ongoing investigation.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260504010000426
