Fiona Millar

SPIN doctor Alastair Campbell and his partner Fiona Millar, a former Downing Street aide, have splashed out on the property market and bought their next door neighbour’s home.
The couple are now hoping to secure permission from Camden Council to connect up their home in terraced Estelle Road, Gospel Oak, with a neighbouring ground floor flat.
Plans have been delivered to the Town Hall in the name of Ms Millar, who once worked as an adviser to Cherie Booth, wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The unusual project is being mulled over by planning officials who are checking to see whether the change would break development rules.
The couple were unwilling to expand on the project. Ms Millar said: “It’s not that there is anything going on, I just think that it is entirely a private matter.”
Other attempts in Camden to connect two neighbouring properties have been met with a mixed response by planners.
Ray Davies, singer-songwriter with the 1960s band The Kinks, was granted permission to knock together two homes in St Michael’s Terrace in Highgate village, a family living in Kelly Street in Kentish Town had similar proposals turned down in April 2004.
Homeowners Graeme and Tina Wright were told that they had to brick up the gap that linked their two properties or face enforcement action.
Records show that Mr Campbell and Ms Millar bought their new flat in late January for £320,000 – the average price for flats in the street.
If granted, the proposals would give the couple, who have three children, a connected ground floor base with two kitchens, two bedrooms and possibly three living rooms.
But they must wait to see how the Town Hall’s planning department view the scheme and officials are almost certain to ask any other residents in the street that might be affected by the change how they feel about the scheme.
It could eventually be considered by elected councillors if the department feels the application is too contentious.