A View From Middle England - Conservative with a slight libertarian touch - For Christian charity and traditional belief - Free Enterprise NOT Covert Corporatism

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Couple lose fight to live in Hertfordshire luxury barn

The barn dance is over
A developer who built a luxury house disguised as a barn on greenbelt land has lost the final stage of his legal battle to live in his home. Alan Beesley, and his wife Sarah, now face losing their house at North Brook Meadow near Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. Last year the Court of Appeal ruled the couple could continue living there. Now the Supreme Court has decided otherwise. Mr.Beesley was likened to a criminal in many ways.

His trouble was that he got found out. Local planners hate being bested and the courts hate a wise guy. Of course, a 100 years ago and all this would be a complete nonsense. Beesley could build whatever he wanted so long as he owned the land and the finished article didn't scare women and horses! We have a Canadian to thank for our lot with the planners. Peacehaven in Sussex is the cause of successive town and country planning acts. Following a competition in the Daily Express (where else?) the notion was to find a name for a model village on the South Downs for returning soldiers from the First World War. The name of Peacehaven was chosen, but the land lotery became a farce with bungalows being built over boundaries of other properties. The resulting chaos gave planners a chance to become legalised busy bodies. The rest is history!

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