Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

If you're interested in the history of Mr & Mrs Grob and Court Place Farm, a quick Google will bring up an article from the Telegraph in 2005 which featured their home. As with the previous poster, I would wish to be respectful of their privacy - however this information is very much in the public domain at their own instigation.

 

So is Court Place Farm Lorna Doone Farm or are they different farms?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

Totally different. The book Lorna Doone is based in and around Oare. Lorna Doone Farm is in Oare. Parts of the story relate to Porlock, London and other locations - not Parracombe though to the best of my recollection. The claim is that the book 'Lorna Doone' was written (presumably only partly) in the Parracombe location. Which is a bit odd, as the author was living in Teddington at the time.

 

sorry, couldn't resist -

 

R D Blackmoor father could have been born in Parracombe as his father and many other generations were Yeoman farmers at Parracombe, but as you say the book was written while he was living in Teddington and, so unless some of the writing was done while he was down there visiting relatives this is made up to sound good and if he did the writing there there is a very high chance there will be a blue plaque on their house stating this fact.

And by this map there isn't one there http://www.blueplaqueplaces.co.uk/south-west/devon#.WqEjIejFLIU

 

Good point re family connections.

 

Al, most history is cherry picked to suit the cause. English history, particularly, has been a good teacher.

 

AIUI, any time limit applies to notification of intent to lodge an appeal, with the appeals themselves usually held over until that date is reached. Spurious and unreasonable objections tend to be weeded out before that point, meaning that any subsequent referral to the wider legal remedies for civil torts is entirely at the appellant's own (considerable) financial risk, with a fair proportion of such actions never even reaching a full substantive hearing - leaving only a telephone-number sized legal bill to show for fruitless* legal case arguments!

The degree of highly professional detailed preparation evident in the L&B application makes it highly unlikely that anything short of a procedural faux pas by the planning authority, who seem to have been equally diligent with regard to full compliance, is liable to find favour at any level .... in which case, it was worth all the waiting!

*fruitless, that is, unless you happen to be a legal practicioner!

 

There is indeed a Lorna Doone Farm at Parracombe. It is a late Victorian house above the railway just south of Court Place. The route of the railway below it is a part of the 2/3 mile of trackbed belonging to Court Place Farm.

Regarding the Lorna Doone connection the owners of Court Place claim that relatives of the author lived there in the 18th century.

 

Surely “has been particularly fruitful”

Tom

 

My hunch is that any appeal would be based on failure to comply with the Local Plan. This is a tough proposition given that the local plan specifically includes the reinstatement of the railway (which is of course why the battle to include it was so hard fought!)

Never the less, my hunch is that an attempt will be made to appeal on this basis.

 

Question still unanswered: how long do they have to lodge an appeal?

 

A certain member of a popular 1960s beat combo is well known for getting his security people to intimidate walkers on public footpaths adjacent to his property in Kent.

 

You want a specific reply, don't you? Bob knows, I wish it were that simple! So far as I can establish from reams of Byzantine legalese, in this case..... 6 months from date of decision. But please remember ..... I'm not a lawyer, nor am I on oath. I've merely been an interested party (opposing some, supporting others) with regard to several planning schemes over the past 40 years!

Set limits apply dependant on the type of application, with major differences between a bog standard private conservatory and a major project undertaken within the framework of an agreed local or regional development strategy (the case on Exmoor). This gets further complicated when more than one statutory body is involved (as with EPNA in this case). For such schemes not fully compliant with existing legislation relevant to the scope of the specific responsible authority (City and County Councils exercising far more power than Parish Councils), a specific Act of Parliament to establish legally sanctioned authority is required (as was the case with both the Docklands and Olympic regenerations). Mercifully, this isn't the case in North Devon.

If, as @AD29935 suspects, objectors to the L&B plans choose to continue their actions, the first step is to appeal application of legal process regarding the specific case. This step has no cost implication for the complainant. If the complaint is rejected (i.e. the planning decision is upheld), the next stage is to challenge the existing agreed strategic plan. This also covers virtually all powers the Secretary of State may enjoy to call in a case for review (as occured when then SoS John Prescott reversed the decision against reinstatement of the RhE/WHR). Given this will, by definition, call into question guidelines already subjected to legal scrutiny up to governmental level, we're now heading into serious legal territory - with a price tag to match. Offhand, I can recall no recent incidence of such a strategic plan being overturned. Given reinstatement of the L&B is encompassed within the strategic plan for Exmoor, agreed between NDC and EPNA and compliant with the legal remit of both, the likelihood of anything short of one or both of those bodies withdrawing support, thereby derailing things (even then, no more so than was the case for the RhE/WHR project) is vanishingly low.

Although it was judgement was predicated on a council's fiduciary obligations - not relevant to this case - The London Borough of Bromley vs The Greater London Council (the 'Fare's Fair' case) in 1981 ensured no statutory authority wished to get caught off guard that way again.

 

Thats about it. According to (ironically) the ENPA website's feature about Blackmore, he and his wife came down to Exmoor for research purposes, before returning home to write the book.
Whilst several inns in the region lay claim that the Blackmores stayed with them during their sojourn, Court Place however, does not get mentioned.
It could have been part of his Grandfathers estate, as he owned several properties in the area, but once again there is no specific mention.
So the claims made are spurious at the very least.
Still, the press loved it. Hey ho...

 

https://acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/ViewDocument.aspx?fileid=20017427

Basically the complainant put windows in their house next to the fence line that the farmers cows could put their heads through.......................

It gives some idea of the problems 'incomers' can cause

 

It's a ruddy minefield! Mercifully, small scale domestic applications are a different kettle of fish from involved projects like the L&B .... inquisitive immigrant cattle notwithstanding!

A close friend's neighbour hacked a (leasehold) one bed basement flat into two, punching a window in a side wall in tbe process. Some years later (long after the offender had moved on), it transpired NO planning permission had been applied for, let alone been granted. Luckily for the other occupants of the building, the work was carried out competently, but you'd think a reputable builder would cover their own backside by checking planning permission existed. Two sales .... and charged-for legal searches .... failed to identify the issue, rather begging the question 'what the hell are buyers paying legal fees for?' I'd have sued the Estate Agents along with the owner who instigated the whole fiasco. The third purchaser down the line successfully applied for retrospective planning permission.

The striking thing in this case was the identity of the building's freeholder ..... Brighton and Hove City Council, coincidentally also the relevant planning authority.

Fills you with confidence, doesn't it!

 

The objectors to an approved planning decision cannot 'appeal' against the decision reached by the members of a Planning Authority.

The objectors can however instigate a 'Judicial Review' if they have grounds to believe there are grounds to challenge the way in which a decision was made, rather than the rights and wrongs of the conclusion reached. From 1 July 2013 all planning cases must be started within 6 weeks from the date of the decision.
See >>> http://www.richardbuxton.co.uk/the-law/judicial-review-process for further detail.

Chris

 

George Newnes was not a local man himself, but a London wealthy incomer. It was books like Lorna Doone and the Waverly novels that inspired Victorians to seek out the wilder parts of Britain as a holiday destination in the first place. So Lorna Doone, whether written in Teddington or not, was partly responsible for the original L&B....