RICHARD KAY: Bizarre row over artist Lucian Freud's £4million home Still causing trouble: The late Lucian Freud left his home to his artist friend The ramshackle, paint- spattered room where Kate Moss reclined naked and a heavily pregnant, nude Jerry Hall posed for Lucian Freud 16 years ago remains exactly as it was when the 89-year-old artist died two years ago. But apart from the perfectly preserved shrine to the great man, other rooms in Freud's £4 million Kensington house are at the centre of a bizarre row involving the artist's friend David Dawson. For Dawson, 53, an artist himself and a contemporary of Tracey Emin, was left the valuable property by Lucian. He has run into trouble trying to make changes to the interior of the Georgian property so he can move in and live there. And he cannot take up residence in the grade II-listed home until a planning wrangle over urgent repairs is resolved. The local council delayed his plans after the influential Kensington Society made an official complaint, accusing Dawson of failing to comply with heritage legislation requirements. "Lucian will be spinning in his grave," says the Society's chairman Amanda Frame. I knew Lucian personally and he wouldn't like the house being tampered with. If Mr Dawson wants to make the property larger, he should move. But interior designer William Hodgson insists that all planning procedure has been observed. He has been instructed to do only remedial works such as sealing up draughty windows which let in fumes from heavy traffic on busy Kensington Church Street. He says: "It's very disappointing for Mr Dawson to have to wait even longer - the matter was supposed to be settled last week. The truth is the house was crumbling around Lucian, whom I've known since he first moved there in 1984. But quite understandably, David needs to make it comfortable so he can move in. Complaint: The Kensington Society made an official complaint, accusing Dawson of failing to comply with heritage legislation requirements as he began renovations to the interior of Lucian Freud's old home I think the Society got its wires crossed after a gardener went round there and started digging up the garden and put hoarding up. Nervous locals feared it would be one of those big basement jobs and got on the phone to the council. It was nothing to do with us. While the Beeb has been weathering various storms, £110,000-a-year part-time BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten has been busy advising the Japan Art Association on which British artists might be suitable candidates for this year's Praemium Imperiale awards, the world's richest arts prize. This post is one of 11 which Patten holds, half of which are paid. In the end, he selected sculptor Antony Gormley, a fellow Catholic, as one of the lucky five who have each won £95,000, along with architect Sir David Chipperfield. Might Gormley return the honour by producing a bust of Patten when the time comes for him to leave the Corporation? Fruity-voiced Sir Donald Sinden was sadly silent when he represented the Prince of Wales at theatrical polymath Patrick Garland's memorial service in Chichester Cathedral this week. Indeed Sir Donald, 89, once one of the most robust of actors, was forced into a wheelchair for the hour-long service at which fellow theatrical luminaries Dame Eileen Atkins, Alan Bennett, Patricia Routledge and Simon Callow gave fulsome addresses. "I can't walk about, unfortunately," Sir Donald told me. Damned annoying. It's the arthritis. Awful. A friend tells me: "Donald hates being wheeled about like an invalid but he was honoured to stand in for Prince Charles and wouldn't have missed Patrick's service for the world." Sinden, who made his name in films such as The Cruel Sea, was game to the last, turning up in his wheelchair for the post-service party at Chichester Festival Theatre, where Garland was a former director and where Sir Donald has appeared many times. Brave Annabell bounces back Posing through her pain, model Annabelle Neilson got into the show-must-go-on spirit of London Fashion Week as she limped rather than sashayed down the catwalk on a crutch. Annabelle, who had a brief marriage to Lord Rothschild's financier son Nat, fractured her pelvis in a riding accident as she trained for the Ladies" Day charity race at this year's Goodwood. Thrown from her horse, she also broke a number of bones at the base of her spine. Ever since she has struggled to regain her mobility and to get back to normality. Posing in pain: Despite being on crutches after her accident, Annabelle Neilson, right, still walked for Pam Hogg at Fashion Scout during London Fashion Week alongside Lady Mary Charteris "Every step must have been excruciating, but she did it for me," says designer Pam Hogg at her show in Freemasons" Hall. We even dyed her crutch black to match her tulle dress! Pam, who met Annabelle, 40, five years ago at a dinner party thrown by Stella McCartney, tells me: "I didn't think she would model after her accident, but she called up from her hospital bed asking if she could still be in the show. She's quite amazing - even though she could hardly climb the stairs to my studio. Adds Pam: "Annabelle epitomises warrior females which is what my show is all about." Injuries-permitting, Annabelle will be seen later this year in a new TV show, Ladies Of London, about society women. Why Fiona has no Big ambitions No Brother for Bruce: BBC presenter Fiona As lead female presenter of the BBC's News At Ten, host of the Antiques Roadshow and Fake Or Fortune, as well as fronting numerous documentaries, Fiona Bruce rarely seems to be off our screens. But the broadcaster insists she has to be careful about which programmes are suitable for her. Not long ago, she says, women were not allowed to read the news because it was thought "they would be too distracting or some such nonsense." She explains: "Then Angela Rippon was a trailblazer. 'She also kicked up her heels on Morecambe & Wise but people didn't think she could carry on reading the news. It's about choices. 'If I went on Celebrity Big Brother - fine programme though that is if it's your cup of tea - it wouldn't do me any favours. She also reveals that since being on the Antiques Roadshow she doesn't buy modern items. We bought a house in the country after I joined the programme and it's all come from auctions or junk shops, nothing of great value I must say. Hats off to Sue Owen, the newly appointed permanent secretary at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is worth noting that Ms Owen worked at the Number 10 policy unit in 1998 and 1999 under Tony Blair. Ex-Labour Culture Minister James Purnell, now the £295,000-a-year Director of Strategy and Digital for the BBC, was working in Downing Street at that time too. As he will lead BBC Charter Renewal negotiations over the next two years, their knowledge of each other may prove invaluable for smoothie Purnell. Funnyman Lee Evans was so homesick in Hollywood he couldn't wait to come home to his family. But now the clan is apart again - his only child Mollie, 20, has left for the U.S. "Sadly we are separated because she wants to make it in showbusiness," says Lee, at the first night party for his West End comedy Barking In Essex. Thank God she wants to be a set designer, not an actor - I wouldn't recommend that to anyone. My wife and I were devastated when she left. California is full of hard, superficial showbizzy people with no human values. I couldn't stand it and we do worry about Mollie - though she has a nice American boyfriend now.