A Hampshire man has failed in a High Court bid to establish ownership of land at Vernham Dean that the surveying authority said was part of a footpath.
The dispute arose in 1994 after the authority surveyed the land under the provisions of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Richard Devereux-Cooke, the claimant, regarded it as part of his property, but the authority found that it was in fact a path, encroached upon by the previous owner of his land.
An SSETR adjudicator subsequently upheld that view, leading Devereux-Cooke to seek judicial review of the adjudicators decision on the ground that it was perverse.
Dismissing the application, however, Turner J said he did not consider the finding perverse and held that there was no scope for the court to interfere in the matter.
Devereux-Cooke v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions Queens Bench Division (Turner J) 8 November 2001
PLS News 9/2/01
