‘Bullied’ farmers claim victory in 11-year battle over access to track
A COUNCIL has been accused of making “error after error” in an 11-year David and Goliath dispute over a Huddersfield farm track that may have cost taxpayers as much as £250,000.
Dairy farmers Angela and Edward Bradley say a narrow, single-lane track that runs across their land has no public access rights. Riders and walkers are allowed to use it if they have sought permission.
Kirklees Council argued it is a public bridleway.
Mr and Mrs Bradley, of Nether Moor Farm, South Crosland, challenged the council and the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the High Court.
They are now claiming victory after the case was quashed.
Mrs Bradley said she and her husband had been “bullied and harassed” by council staff for more than a decade.
She said “council officers have made error after error in this matter” and said the council “must have an elastic bank account with our public money in it to have pursued us for 11 years.”
Kirklees Council has now apologised to the Bradleys.
She said: “We have been bullied and harassed for 11 years by self-important yellow-vested little Hitler officials acting unlawfully and with apparent impunity.”
After Michael Gove, Environment Secretary at the time, intervened, the case was heard at a public inquiry which backed the council.
But the couple lodged an appeal and the order was quashed, bringing an end to the impasse.
Up to 2016 the stalemate is said to have cost the council around £14,000 in legal fees. However the Bradleys believe it is over £250,000.
Kirklees Council said the case was quashed after the defendants – the Secretary of State and the council – agreed that there were flaws in the government inspector’s decision. It added: “We always work hard to make sure we are doing the right thing for our residents and this case was no different.”