Josie Rowland, widow of businessman Tiny Rowland, is asking the Court of Appeal to overturn a December 2002 High Court ruling to grant public rights of navigation near to her Thamesside retreat.
Rowland, who was left the historic estate following her husband’s death, argues that the Environment Agency should declare that there is no public right of navigation on nearby Hedsor Water.
She claims that her right to respect for her personal privacy and home and the peaceful enjoyment of her property were being violated.
In the High Court, Lightman J ruled that it was unreasonable of the Rowlands to have founded an expectation that the public would always be excluded from sailing on the water, based soley upon the word of a lock-keeper, without making further enquiries.
Opening Rowland’s claim in the Court of Appeal, Lord Lester QC attacked the High Court ruling, arguing that the “judge’s finding that the defendant had not, by its conduct, represented that Hedsor Water was private, was made in the face of the evidence and was untenable”.
He also claimed that: “The finding that the defendant had given proper and adequate consideration to the claimant’s legitimate expectation, was a finding that was wholly unsupported by any evidence from the defendant which touched on the subject.”
He said the that the judge had reached this “peculiar and unjust result because he erroneously construed the 1795 and 1812 Acts from which the commissioners derived their powers at the material times, in an anachronistic and artificially narrow fashion”.
The hearing continues.
Rowland v Environment Agency Court of Appeal (Peter Gibson, May and Mance LJJ) 7 October 2003.
References: EGi Legal News 9/10/03
