HURLED OUT BY AN EARL
Toff to evict farmer, 87, to build luxury homes on land
AN 87-year-old farmer is being booted off land he’s tended for 55 years – by a millionaire earl who wants to build posh homes on it.
Jenkin Rees has lost a long compensation battle over the farm he believed would stay in his family for generations.
He was granted tenancy by the 3rd Earl of Plymouth, a descendant of slave trader Clive of India, in 1965.
But in 2017 his son the 4th Earl won planning permission for luxury homes there, triggering a clause in the lease that means he can legally take it back.
Bailiffs could now evict Jenkin, wife Brenda, 84, and 60-year-old son Phil from their home at any time.
Phil – who runs the 220 acre farm and its cottages – told the Mirror: “This family have treated their underlings in an appalling manner.
“The Earl wants to finish his tenants off and throw them on the scrapheap so he can get millions from our farm.”
Jenkin – who claims he was promised the land for three generations – said: “I had no intention of stopping this development. I wanted to be fairly compensated for a farm I was encouraged to grow by the 3rd Earl of Plymouth.”
ENCOURAGED
The family, who will lose their livelihood, say they say they have spent all their savings fighting their case.
Phil fears he could be forced to move from the farm to a council flat.
He said: “I’ve got no home. They have spent millions trying to throw us out instead of compensating us fairly.
“Because we were encouraged to expand in the Seventies, we felt our futures would be secure. Now we are having the rug pulled out from under us.”
The legal battle commenced when Plymouth Estates – run by 4th Earl Ivor Edward Other Windsor-Clive – began developing a £2billion luxury suburb of around 7,000 luxury homes on the outskirts of Welsh capital Cardiff.
A clause in Jenkin’s tenancy said he would have to leave if planning permission were ever granted on his land – which looked unlikely back in the Sixties.
Now Phil says the family’s mental health has taken a hammering in an unsuccessful legal wrangle that went all the way to the Court of Appeal.
He said: “My father’s 87. Can you imagine what it’s done to him? I’ve woken up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, and gone downstairs only to meet him. He can’t sleep either.”
A Plymouth Estates spokesman said the Rees family had been aware of the building plans since 2013, before permission was granted in March 2017.
The spokesman added: “Over the last four years the owners have tried to engage Mr Rees and his family and repeatedly offered financial compensation terms well beyond the legal statutory requirements. These have all been ignored or rejected by the Rees family who instead chose to pursue the case through the courts.
“The Plymouth Estate has also repeatedly offered Mr and Mrs Rees a suitable property for life, which will be in the same local area, at a nominal, rental cost of £21 per month. The owners continue to be committed to finding a fair and equitable solution for all parties
“The owners have always felt that it was not in anyone’s best interest to pursue legal proceedings to the degree that Mr Rees’ legal team have chosen to, including unsuccessfully going to the Court of Appeal.”
Madonna gyrating on a metal fence.
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