Dr Dawn Carnell and her husband David Moore bought the six-bedroom home in 2015 and have spent an estimated £250,000 on a lengthy legal battle over the placement of a bridle path
A couple who forked out £1 million for a dream home ended up embroiled in a 10-year-long legal battle due to a council planning department’s alleged map blunder.
Cancer specialist Dr Dawn Carnell, 57, and her husband David Moore, 61, snapped up their Hertfordshire home Breach House nearly 10 years ago before spending more to renovate the dilapidated property. The couple has reportedly been involved in a lengthy legal battle with residents who claim a public right of way should run through the couple’s drive and paddock and has done so for some 100 years.
The couple instead insist the path should run between two cottages to the west of their Little Berkhamstead home. They have reportedly spent about £250,000 in their legal dispute ahead of using a planning inquiry to appeal against a county council decision that ended up backing locals.
According to MailOnline, a four-day hearing this week heard the council admit that an error had been repeated in nine editions of the official map. Gavin Harbour-Cooper, a senior definitive map officer, said the authority looked into the dispute in 1956 and ended up concluding that the bridleway ran through Breach House.
But a “definite map” of the area created in 1959 showed a “wrong route” with the path showing that it ran through neighbouring cottages. Mr Harbour-Cooper the “definitive description” was correct.
Mrs Carnell and Mr Moor claimed they would not have bought the home had they known dog walkers, horse riders and others could walk through their property. An estate agents broshure that was published ahead of the couple’s purchase of the home noted twice to the path.
An entry seen by MailOnline said the six-bedrrom house on 1.75 acres of land includes a “stable block and paddock…along with the bridleway, makes this an ideal home for anyone wanting to keep a horse.” Nigel Adams, a founder of online estate agents BigBlackHen.com and whose parents owned the home between 1973 to 1985 said he handled the sale to the couple in 2015.
He told this week’s inquiry: “During this process, I repeatedly discussed with the Moores the existing bridleway and its route through the Breach House land.” A former resident of the home also told the hearing Mr Moor stated he would close of the bridle path in December 2019 after he dog alleged attacked passers-by and their dogs.
Resident Richard Chaplin, who lives in the village, told MailOnline: “Rather than fencing off part of his property… an anomaly had been identified in the definitive map which, in his opinion, gave him the legal right to close the section that passed through his land.”
Neighbour Sue Williams, a retired Metropolitan Police commander, and her husband Wayne Morris, a retired Met inspector said they were fight to want the bridal path open to the public. “It’s frustrating and has cost us a lot of money,” she said. “I was in charge of criminal justice for the Met. my integrity is very high. I was in the Met for 40 years.”
The Mirror has contacted Little Berkhamsted Parish Council for comment.
