Knutby spa is "illegal"

The congregation of Knutby is in trouble again. But while a year ago the village was at the centre of gripping cult-sex-murder scandal, this week it has merely fallen foul of building regulations.

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In January the extreme Pentacostalist sect established a new business venture: a health spa on the Gränsta estate in Knutby. But according to the local paper Upsala Nya Tidning, the spa was built without planning permission and the owners did not tell the relevant authorities that they had opened a health centre.

Nor does the centre's kitchen have approval for serving food.

"This is an illegal building," said Brita Christensen at the town planning office. "We have not had an application stating that health treatment would be carried out. That should be handed in before building starts and you take in customers."

UNT said that the matter is being handed over to the prosecutor and that the two owners from the congregation risk financial penalties.

Pastor Kim Wincent said that the treatment centre was only taking in a maximum of ten guests at weekends and that to call it a "spa complex" was "a little drastic".

"For us it is a little therapy after everything that has happened," he told UNT, adding that the reason they did not apply for planning permission was that the building work was nothing more than a bit of a freshening up.

"We are VAT registered," he said.


Sources: UNT