Ownership feud goes on despite access ruling

THE man at the centre of a feud over access to a village playing field has won an appeal against legal action by East Riding Council.

The council took enforcement action after Eric Hall put up metal fencing, barbed wire, brick pillars, lighting posts and a CCTV camera on a high post on the corner of the lane next to his home on South Newbald Road, North Newbald.

The 77-year-old has been at odds with many in the village for years over the lane to the football field that he claims he owns.

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But the parish council says there is no owner and that he has repeatedly encroached on a vital access which has shrunk to about 10ft.

Mr Hall, who has another home at Boston Spa, recently dug a ditch down the middle of Spring Lane twice – only for it to be filled in again by outraged villagers.

However his appeal against the enforcement action has been allowed by a planning inspector, although with the condition that he does now have to remove anti-vandal spikes from the CCTV post.

Mr Hall – who recently instructed solicitors to seek ways to stop people driving to the playing field – claims that prior to the early 1980s the track was a "proper dyke with a stream in it."

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"It's just a dyke and I own it. The important thing is that he has allowed us CCTV to protect our boundary.

"As far as I am concerned we've had enough of 20 years of hooliganism and destruction," he explained.

However the chairman of North Newbald parish council, Chris Waite, said he was surprised and disheartened by the result.

"Mr Hall has been consistently unable to produce any evidence as to his ownership despite our repeated requests.

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"All the villagers wish to do is what they have always done – which is to use the lane as a transit between North and South Newbald and as a means of accessing the playing fields for events and maintenance."

"It is a constant thorn in our side and has been for the last 20 years."

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