Victory for family in battle to save farm

A FAMILY which was threatened with the loss of the Yorkshire Dales farm it has tenanted since the 1700s in a struggle with the estate of one of Britain’s wealthiest aristocrats have spoken of their joy after planners ruled in their favour.

Colin and Joanna Winterburn said they had been overwhelmed by the public support they received, including 2,100 signatures on a petition to stop the Chatsworth Settlement Trustees (CST) plan to convert their home and nearby agricultural buildings into extra storage and offices for the 30,000-acre Bolton Abbey Estate.

The couple were speaking after members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority condemned the proposal by the CST, which also owns the Duke of Devonshire’s estates at Chatsworth in Derbyshire and employs more than 650 staff, as extremely unjust.

Members of the authority’s planning committee said the CST had launched the plan after “a breakdown of the trust needed between landlord and tenant”, and that it rode roughshod over the Winterburn family’s human rights.

Mr Winterburn told the committee how generations of his family had farmed the 140 acres and his children hoped to do so in the future, but the CST had announced it wanted to change the properties’ use, enabling it to terminate the tenancy and reduce the family’s farmland by 100 acres.

Mr Winterburn said while the plan would end the family’s cattle farm, farm shop and home, there were buildings that would suit storage and office purposes which had stood empty on the estate for many years.

He told members: “It seems to us the estate are intent on removing the indigenous population to make way for holiday cottages, business people and wealthy retirees.”