Seven-year planning dispute that cost taxpayers millions

HARE Hatch Sheeplands owner Rob Scott was involved in a long- running planning dispute with Wokingham Borough Council.

This began in 2012 when the council accused him of breaching the green belt and extending a café and play area unlawfully.

It insisted that Hare Hatch Sheeplands was only authorised to run as a plant nursery, café and farm shop but seven other businesses were operating from there.

When Mr Scott ignored an enforcement notice, the council took him to court and the High Court ruled in favour of the council and granted an injunction against the garden centre. The unauthorised businesses had to leave but not all the changes required by the council were made in time, including the demolition of buildings, which resulted in Mr Scott receiving a two-month suspended prison sentence and being ordered to pay thousands of pounds for contempt of court.

Then in June 2018 Judge Morris, sitting at Reading Crown Court, said the council had “offended the court’s sense of justice” by prosecuting Mr Scott for breaching an enforcement notice after it had convinced him to drop an appeal.

Judge Morris said: “The fact they [Wokingham Borough Council] have chosen to do so under these circumstances — coupled with the clear and, in my view, inappropriate consideration of seeking to reclaim costs through the application of proceeds of crime, is unjust and unfair and so offends the court’s sense of justice that it must stay the proceedings in respect of all these defendants to protect the integrity of the criminal justice system.”

The council appealed but in January 2019 the Court of Appeal upheld Judge Morris’s decision and ruled that Mr Scott and the other seven business owners had no case to answer, saying the council’s decision to prosecute had not been properly considered.

The businesses then went back to court to claim costs and in July 2019 were awarded £68,000 from the council.

Judge Angela Morris said her ruling was designed to “draw a line” under the case, which was estimated to have cost taxpayers more than £1 million. She said: “This matter has gone on for an inordinate length of time.”

The council rejected a call for an inquiry into the botched prosecution, saying it would not apologise for protecting the green belt.

Mr Scott complained to the council that it had asked him to withdraw his appeal against the enforcement notice. But an independent investigation cleared the council of maladministration and unprofessional conduct.