125 people attended a public meeting after concerns were raised that unauthorised work was taking place on land near a north Cumbrian town.
The alarm was raised when an excavator arrived on the site on the land on the west side of Whites Cut, Midgeholme, Lambley, near Brampton last month and, after residents complained, the landowner met with officers from various authorities and agreed to cease further operations.
Since then, there has been extensive co-operation between agencies to determine the next steps.
Michael Newberry, who is based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, bought the land, which was formerly owned by Sustrans, at auction for £19,500 in November and it is understood that when the buyer’s premium and VAT were added it would be nearer £30,000.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service he said he eventually wanted to build a property and workshop on the land which has been neglected for a number of years.
He said he was carrying the work out in good faith, he was trying to improve the area and he claimed he did not need planning permission for the type of work he was attempting.
Mr Newberry described it as minor engineering work where he was trying clean four water courses which were all blocked but they had flooded the area and his 22-tonne digger ended up getting bogged down.
He attended the public meeting at the Lady Thompson Memorial Hall in Hallbankgate on Tuesday and apologised for causing the damage to the site.
He said: “We’ve ended up moving more material than we wanted to. If it had been dry, if the watercourses had been kept to a normal position and cleaned out, we wouldn’t have had this problem. But unfortunately, the site’s been neglected.”
Mr Newberry said he had offered to sell the land to the local community and added: “I did offer them it for sale and got laughed out of the village hall.”
He said that his asking price was £50,000 and added: “Now, if you work it out, there were 125 people there. It’s less than £500 a person.”
The site contains the route of Lord Carlisle’s railway, which was one of Britain’s earliest railways with its origins dating back to wooden wagonways at Tindale fell in the 1770s, with a through line to Brampton completed in 1798.
The route is used as a public footpath but Mr Newberry said he had offered a strip of land on the edge of the site which could also be developed as a footpath and cycle route.
He said: “So the public’s still got the use of it and obviously that’s a gesture of goodwill on my behalf.”
However, Councillor Roger Dobson (Corby and Hayton, Lib Dem) said that the land lies within an area of outstanding natural beauty, overseen by North Pennines National Landscape, and it borders, or was extremely close to, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
He added: “To do anything on that site, it requires planning permission. There is no permitted development whatsoever on that site.”
He said that, given the purpose of the railway in the 1770s, it was surrounded by coal mines and it had been identified by the coal authority as a high-risk area. He added: “Before you can do anything, you’ve got to do various ground investigations which are expensive.”
Cllr Dobson said if any further work was attempted in the area he would take steps for Cumberland Council to issue a temporary stop notice.
He added: “They’re ready to do that, and a temporary stop notice would mean that if you did anything, you would be liable to criminal charges.”
He said the council was coordinating a multi-agency approach but at the moment they did not want anything to be done until they worked it out.
Cllr Dobson he was working with the local community to try and establish the former railway line as a public right of way and locals were trying to nominate it as a community asset and added: “Of itself brings special protection. And there’s also an interest in the community to buy the land.”
He said the attendance at the public meeting was impressive and added: “It was remarkable, 125 people, I mean it was snowing outside and It was horribly cold. All these people turned up and it was just fantastic.”
Cllr Dobson said he was disappointed that Sustrans had not consulted the local community when it was decided to sell the land.
He said that he, together with the local community, would be monitoring the situation to make sure no further work was carried out.
He added: “Because if he does do something I will ask Cumberland Council to place a temporary stop notice on it.”
