What’s the best way to hide your illegally-built castle? Behind hay bales, of course.
And what’s the best way to keep the council from knocking it down? Say it’s got bats in it!
These are the lessons we have learned from Robert Fidler, who is in the process of doing just that with a property at Honeycrock Farm in Salfords.
He built the castle in 2000 and moved in with his family in 2002, all the while hiding it behind a giant wall of straw.
It is alleged the farmer hoped to hide the castle for long enough to use a legal loophole that meant if a construction was uncontested for four years authorities could not touch it. In 2007, Reigate and Banstead Borough Council ordered the castle’s demolition after the Planning Inspectorate dismissed his appeals.
Fidler has told the High Court that the castle cannot be knocked down because it is also home to “roosting” bats. He said an ecological survey conducted in June established the presence of bats and newts around the property earmarking it as an “ideal” habitat.
Mr Fidler told the court: “I started a demolition process within the 90-day period, but came across what I can only understand to be a criminal matter.”
Explaining the statute, which he came across on www.bats.org.uk, Mr Fidler explained: “This is, apparently, a European law, which is over and above any English or local authority statute or rule.
“I understand from the website that if there were any endangered species threatened by actions of either demolishing the building or the garden wall, that it was a very serious offence.”
Mr Fidler said the survey established the property had “all the ideal things where bats are likely to be foraging.”
He accused the council of having “no interest at all in their responsibilities to wildlife.
The council said the case has cost it £50,000 and had to take Mr Fidler to court after he refused to comply with court orders and an injunction ordering him to knock it down.
Stephen Wales, for the council, accused Mr Fidler of “deliberately disobeying the injunction order.”
“My claim is that the council’s inaction and lack of response about the bats unfairly placed me into what they believe is a contempt of court – in fact the very thing which the council is now prosecuting me for,” Mr Fiddler said.
Fidler sold the four-bedroom castle last year but still lives there as a tenant – he now faces eviction.
All images: SWNS
The first ever time Bats in the Belfry were a good thing.
