A city solicitor has failed in her High Court bid to stop a neighbouring farmer-turned-property-developer from using her driveway to access a “landlocked” plot where he has been building two barn conversions.
Mark Stoneham, through his property development company Alchemy Estates, has been in dispute with Zoe Bucknell, a company secretary, business owner and (according to her Twitter profile) gun-maker, for the last two years.
She lives in a property called Holywell Farm, near Sevenoaks in Kent. He is developing a plot of land called the Yard that is only accessible from the public road via a 55m long drive that passes the farmhouse.
The drive is owned by Bucknell. However, Stoneham property has had a right to use it since 1972.
According to a ruling handed down yesterday, the case has a chequered legal history involving injunction-attempts and failed mediations. Stoneham, however, has continued to develop the plot. One barn conversion is finished and occupied and the other is almost complete.
Bucknell argues, among other things, that the increased use of the road would affect her peace and quiet and damage the fabric of the road. She has been seeking a permanent injunction stopping construction traffic and potentially blocking the inhabitants of the new houses from using the road.
The case went to trial in December, and in his ruling planning judge Paul Matthews rejected the arguments of Bucknell’s lawyers and refused to grant the injunction.
In his ruling he said that, at the time the right-of-way was granted, the road was used by more agricultural traffic than it is today, although traffic probably dipped after 1990 when agricultural use of some of the land stopped.
During the time the use of the road was surveyed, no vehicles met on the single-lane road. Traffic management experts cited in the case agreed that there was “no possibility” of traffic on the road reaching “anywhere near” its capacity.
In addition, restricting the use of residential traffic would be difficult to justify.
Matthews said: “There is nothing in the physical make-up of the driveway which on the one hand allows for agricultural use but on the other hand makes it unsuitable for residential use.
“In my judgment, it is not seriously arguable that changing the use of the Yard to residential use would by itself fall outside the scope of the express right of way granted.”
As for the building work, the judge added: “Buildings fall into disrepair or decay, or they become outmoded or unsuitable for their original use after periods of time.
“Accordingly, it must be expected that they are demolished and reconstructed from time to time, and that the process of demolition and reconstruction will involve use of the access to the site.
“The claimants claim fails and is dismissed.”
Zoe Claire Bucknell v Alchemy Estates (Holywell) Limited
High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts (HHJ Paul Matthews) 4 April 2023
