- Location
- Devon
The way I read it, rather than stop ploughing whilst he challenged the stop notice, he chose to ignore it and carry on.
The court case is nothing to do with whether it is right or wrong to plough the land, its the fact that none of us can disregard properly served legal documents.
I now see why he was defending himself in court rather than using a qualified lawyer, any lawyer would have told him his case was hopeless and to plead guilty at the earliest opportunity.
Indeed;
"A farmer has admitted breaking an order not to plough or graze animals on protected land which had been designated for conservation by Natural England.
Andrew Cooper pleaded guilty at Exeter Crown Court after a judge ruled that he was not able to challenge the legality of the order which prevented him using fields at his North Devon farm in this way."
But the previous hearing report said;
"The charge alleges that he grazed a fodder field; ploughed all or part of a field; rolled and planted all or part of a field, and used lime or other substances."
"The stop order was issued by Natural England to protect what they classified as 'uncultivated, semi-natural areas'.
This is consistent with ajcc's comments about the case and how NE were trying to enforce conditions of a lapsed agreement.
NE have completely changed their story because ajcc could easily show that the areas were cultivated. They do not have to defend their actions and it is not possible to make them justify their stop order which they couldn't do.
If you received a stop order randomly telling you that you could no longer use a part of your farm and there was no mechanism to appeal, what would you do?
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