A horse lover has failed in the latest round of her bid to turn her 120-year-old barn into an idyllic home. The development scheme will now be reconsidered at a public inquiry.
In what was described at the High Court as a “personal tragedy”, Candice Hadfield, she has spent more than £400,000 of her own money on legal fees to achieve her dream of living in the Cheshire countryside.
However, the High Court has dismissed the latest challenge by Ms Hadfield to moves that could block her plans to turn her property at “Little Meadow”, Great Warford, Cheshire, into a home for herself and her horses.
After originally insisting that the barn development should be demolished, Macclesfield Council had a change of heart and granted consent for the scheme. However, the matter was then called in by the Secretary of State for Transport, Environment and the Regions. Now the scheme is to be the subject of another public inquiry.
In dismissing Ms Hadfields challenge to the latest moves by the Secretary of State, Sir Richard Tucker said that there was “an important matter of planning policy to be resolved”, and the Secretary of State’s intervention had been justified.
“This is not a conversion; this is, I am satisfied, a replacement. Sympathetic though I am to Miss Hadfield, I cannot say that she has an arguable case.”
PLS News 2/11/01
