Sting gets stung by karma in planning row

Sting's Buddhist beliefs teach him all about the meaning of karma - but little did he know that he would get such a visible display of its effects right on his own doorstep.

The former Police singer has become involved in an almighty planning row after an anonymous whistleblower tipped off the local council about illegal buildings on his Wiltshire estate.

The tipster struck within weeks of Sting himself demanding that a distant fishing hut on a neighbouring estate which ruined the view from his bedroom window be demolished.

It emerged last night that local planning officers have launched an investigation into the legality of a cavernous barn built by the singer on his sprawling estate to house his organically-farmed cattle and poultry.

Sting now risks having the barn pulled down - which will doubtless seriously effect his organic operation - after planners discovered it was "not constructed with the original design approved by the council".

Being hidden among trees in the middle of the wealthy singer's 800-acre Lake House estate near Salisbury, the barn cannot possibly be seen from neighbouring properties.

One might therefore wonder what could possibly have prompted such an investigation into whether it was built in line with council-approved plans.

In a cruel twist, it has emerged that 55-year-old Sting has no one else to blame but himself in this episode.

The planning probe first began when the singer - real name Gordon Sumner - complained about the wooden fishing hut half a mile away on a neighbour's land spoiling the view from his bedroom window.

The complaint only served to further embitter relations between Sting and the owners of the estate neighbouring his, Great Durnford Manor, the home of Prince Charles's friend Lady Tryon before she died in 1997.

Complaining last September, the singer wanted the hut on the opposite bank of the Avon from his £7 million manor to be bulldozed after learning it did not have planning consent. The owners of the manor were forced to apply for retrospective planning application to keep the hut.

However, during the council investigation into the apparently innocuous fishermen's shack, an anonymous third party contacted the council to claim that Sting had buildings on his own estate which were also illegal and should therefore be pulled down.

A council spokesman confirmed yesterday that it subsequently arranged for an planning enforcement officer to visit Sting's estate to see if there were any "planning breaches" on a number buildings in the grounds.

During that visit, it was noticed that a large barn did not match up in size to the approved design agreed by the council.

The council said the original planning application was approved in 1993 - but its present measurements were "totally different" from what was granted.

Sting has now been forced to apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness for the barn used to store hay and equipment and offer shelter to his pigs and chickens.

If the changes to the barn are more than four years old, planning laws state that Sting can argue that the barn should be left to stand.

"This has all come about because of the fishing hut incident," a council source said.

The council has thrown the barn application out to public consultation until 15 February.

As a tax exile, the singer is rarely at the estate. His wife Trudie lives there when she is not at the couple's London home with their younger children Coco, 16, and 11-year-old Giacomo. Their two older children Mickey, 22, and Jake, 21, have London homes of their own.

Sting himself can most often be found - especially over the summer months - in Tuscany living on an even larger estate called Pallagio a few miles south of Florence, where staff produce his own brands of olive oil and wine - products which also feature in their organic Christmas hampers.