Secretary of State is reported for illegal construction

Johan Jakobsson, state secretary to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M), is reported to the police by Värmdö municipality for having illegally built a wooden deck at his country estate in Stockholm’s archipelago, reports Dagens Nyheter.

Jakobsson states in a post on Facebook that the municipality gave permission for the expansion on Monday and that the police report was only made according to current routine.

“Of course I respect that the municipality follows its routine. It remains to be seen where this report leads, given that the municipality has decided to approve the application,” writes Jakobsson in the post.

The background is an anonymous tip that was submitted to the municipality in October 2022, that Jakobsson’s jetty and wooden deck were built in violation of the beach protection regulations. Since then, an inspection case has been ongoing and last week inspectors made an unannounced visit to the property, where it was determined that the wooden decking was illegal and lacked a dispensation.

The wooden deck in question was built in 2019 and replaced a smaller wooden deck that was already on site. According to Jakobsson, the municipality granted an exemption from the beach protection for building on the site already in 2004, whereupon he “assumed that you could then build a wooden deck of any size”.

Earlier this year, writes Jakobsson, the municipality announced that that permit no longer applies and therefore he sent in a new application – which is now said to have been granted.