In 2018 four local families met the £3600 cost for a legal opinion from a renowned planning barrister, Paul Brown QC, which was submitted to AVBC in the matter of Haytop’s planning application to locate residential twin lodges on the site. The application was refused. In 2019 an application was made to site 30 lodges for permanent residences and another 30 for 12 month holiday occupation. One of the four families paid the £2400 cost of a second opinion from Mr Brown but recovered almost £1600 from the crowdfunding appeal mounted by WACAG. That application was also refused.
As you are probably aware, the Haytop owners have recently appealed against enforcement notices issued by AVBC by which they are required to remove all lodges and return the site to its condition as was prior to December 2016. If AVBC is successful in defending the appeals at a forthcoming Public Inquiry we will not be faced with the prospect of having 60 large lodges on the site. If they lose we will have a residential “housing estate” with street lighting throughout, hard landscaping, the removal of more trees, extra traffic, etc, etc.
AVBC, the Planning Inspectorate and the Environmental Law Foundation all place great weight on representations being made to the Inquiry by local residents and other affected parties and we hope that many of you will make individual submissions as outlined on this web site. However, we also think that it would be beneficial to have a formal Legal Submission to the Inquiry prepared on behalf of the community and have approached the barrister again for advice. He is willing to undertake the preparation and would charge us a special concessionary rate to do so. Nevertheless the bill would amount to about £3000 plus vat.
We do not have time to raise the amount by public subscription so the same family may be willing to meet the QC’s bill up front, but only if they have some indication of how willing other residents and interested parties would be to also donate towards the £3000+ costs. It is for this reason that WACAG is asking you to indicate how much you would be willing to pledge towards reimbursing that family if we go ahead. If you are willing and able to make a pledge, no matter how large or small, please confirm that by return email as soon as possible so we can decide if we should mandate Mr Brown to prepare a submission on our behalf.
We will advise of payment methods and details in due course.
Could we also ask you please to inform friends and neighbours of details of this appeal and seek their support?
Stay safe and thanks from WACAG
Pledges for the appeal have now reached £3000 so we have almost hit the target. We have requested the barrister to prepare his opinion but there is not so much urgency as before because the deadline for submissions to the PI is now 8th June.
We are extremely grateful to those who have pledged support. Our treasurer will contact you soon to arrange collection. Meanwhile, stay safe.
We have had a very encouraging response to the appeal in the first 24 hours. Every amount pledged, no matter how much, is a valuable contribution to our cause and we are extremely grateful for it. The Haytop owners will be represented at the Public Inquiry by their barrister and we feel that similar representation, by way of a Legal Submission, will be of significant value for our local community.
We do realise, in these somewhat abnormal times, that some of you may have changed circumstances and are perhaps not able to pledge as much as you would wish. That makes us all the more grateful for your support at this time. We continue to hope that pledges, however great or small, will continue to be made so that we may soon reach a decision about instructing our QC to prepare a Legal Submission on our behalf.
Once again, thank you sincerely and keep safe.