A roofer who bought a field near the Essex village of Castle Hedingham, cleared it of trees, installed electricity and water, fenced it off and levelled it with truck loads of aggregate has been ordered to return the land to its previous state and handed a suspended three-month prison sentence.
Jimmy Wilson, a self-employed builder, and his family bought the field for £55,000 in March 2021, according to a High Court judgment handed down on 1 April.
At the time, the land was covered in trees and shrubs and was designated as “for agricultural use only”.
A month later, following complaints from residents, Braintree District Council sent a planning inspector to the site to see what was happening. The inspector discovered that the site had been cleared and enclosed with a two-metre-high fence, and had been connected to electricity and water although no planning applications had been made.
The council, worried that the owners were constructing an unauthorised caravan park, issued a planning contravention notice seeking information and were told that the land had been bought as an investment and that a planning application would soon be sent.
On 24 August, a planning inspector paid another visit and discovered that part of the site had been levelled. On 26 August, the council obtained an injunction from a judge ordering the land owners to stop developing the land.
However, when the planning inspector visited less than a week later, the land had been further levelled with at least four deliveries of topsoil. The council obtained an extension on the injunction.
Two weeks later, the planning inspector returned. The land was now almost entirely level. During the visit, a tipper-lorry, full of topsoil, arrived and dumped its load on the ground. Jimmy Wilson said he hadn’t ordered the truck.
According to the ruling, the council escalated legal pressure owing to ongoing breaches of the injunction. On 12 October, a High Court judge extended the injunction and ordered that the land be returned to its state prior to the breaches.
To do that, the owners would have to remove the fencing and utilities connections. They did not need to rewild the land, but they did need to remove the aggregate levelling the field.
In January, the planning inspector returned. The fence had been replaced with a smaller one. The utilities had been disconnected, but there had been no attempt to remove the aggregate. Meanwhile, the family had hired a planning consultant, who had formally put in papers seeking permission to fence the land off and level it.
The applications were rejected and the council said it could not give permission for the land to be levelled until it was sure that the aggregate used was not contaminated.
Last week, at a further hearing at the High Court in London, Jimmy Wilson admitted breaking the earlier injunctions and admitted responsibility for levelling the land.
The judge hearing the case, Paul Bowen QC, said that the “flagrant and serous breaches of court orders” amounted to contempt of court.
“The blatant disregard of planning rules and court orders undermines public trust and confidence in the planning process and undermines the rule of law.”
He said that the breaches were so serious that there should be a custodial penalty, noting that the Insulate Britain protestors received prison sentences for breaking injunctions.
He sentenced Wilson to three months in prison for four specific breaches, to run concurrently.
However, Wilson said that he lives with and cares for his elderly parents, one of whom is terminally ill. The judge said he would suspend the sentence for 12 months provided he complied with the order to return the land to its state before the works started.
If he doesn’t comply, the judge said, Wilson faces the prospect of being immediately sent to prison.
The judge also fined him £5,000, to be paid within a year.
Braintree District Council v Wilson and others [2022] EWHC 753 (QB)
High Court, Queen’s Bench Division (Paul Bowen QC, sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court) 1 April 2022
