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Pensioner told to let his home fall into sea

Tue Nov 18 02:25PM

A pensioner has launched a High Court legal battle against a government-funded organisation after he was told that he must not prevent his cliffside home from falling into the sea.

Peter Boggis, a retired engineer, built his own coastal defences to prevent erosion that was threatening his home as well as neighbouring properties.

But Natural England wants the fossil-bearing cliffs on which the houses stand to wear away, exposing soil and rock that they want to study.

In 2006 it declared that the area was a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Mr Boggis was banned from maintaining his ‘soft sea defences'.

The 77-year-old is currently arguing at London's High Court that Natural England has acted beyond its powers and has no legal right to prevent him from defending his home.

The case, which is believed to have cost around £50,000 to bring to court, is "extremely critical for all people living along the coast" as they might also be prevented from protecting their homes, according to Mr Boggis.

Gregory Jones, Mr Boggis' lawyer, told Mr Justice Blair - the brother of the former Prime Minister - that the purpose of SSSIs was to conserve or preserve geological features, not to study the results of cliff destruction.

Natural England argues that it had a legitimate scientific interest in allowing the sea to erode the cliffs.

 

Comments491 - 500 of 509

  1. As usual the inmates are running the asylum could we perhaps quarry in the back garden of the cheif executive of Natural England.?
    i have all my life worked in science upto my retirement and never have i come accross such a flagrant abuse such as this apart from burke and hare perhaps it is time for these bodies be (a) elected and (b) to have to pay from there own pockets when putting forward such schemes this would be the point when common sense would prevail. In relation to the High Court justice for the rich was lord faulkeners forte and the little man could fall by the wayside. it is time that ALL JUDGES were elected to office for a five year term and those not up to the job could be removed so that a balanced judiciery could be made.

    peter.mchugh3 From peter.mchugh3 on Sun Nov 23 09:59AM

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  2. only a couple of days ago there was contraversy over the BNP, perhaps the government need to look at silly items like this to see why suddenly the BNP are doing so well, and put our country in order, there are so many comments about politics and rate payers money, come on gordon and david , its very simple, listen to the public on these blogs , its not very difficult be like other countries, its nice to be nice but charity starts at home!

    clumf From clumf on Sun Nov 23 10:39AM

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  3. I cannot see were the natural erosion argument come,s into it. We have storm defence,s all around Britian putting up Harbours as stopped the natural movement of sands causing the erosion to accelerate. Humans have made a mess of the World a few thousand tons off concrete won,t make much difference Save the Planet... dont make me laugh, the Planet will be fine but say,s "let,s save ourselves" so we can carry on fighting burning and killing everything living thing left does,nt sound right!!!

    todas101 From todas101 on Sun Nov 23 10:44AM

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  4. The fossils were there long before the gentleman in question moved in on their patch - important point which many seem to be overlooking.

    pminns41 From pminns41 on Sun Nov 23 09:39PM

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  5. Perhaps we should be asking why Tony Benn & son received £millions spent to save their home by a government agency when this man cannot even be allowed to protect his own property himself?

    paddock.house From paddock.house on Mon Nov 24 09:24AM

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  6. Being an engineer he must have known his house would eventually fall into the sea. The powers that be have seen sense for once.

    jwhite14 From jwhite14 on Mon Nov 24 04:29PM

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  7. Another example of unelected ,overpaid & underworked quangos interfering in peoples lives and to their detriment. I an old{very} soldier who served in ww2
    and I am ashamed to admit that I once thought& believed that this was a.country worth all that suffering & effort. When I read about cases such as this I now think differently. Thanks to the Labour Party.for spoiling it all,
    Old Sweat

    rcbeak From rcbeak on Tue Nov 25 05:36PM

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  8. For hundreds of years an Englishmans home was his castle until Labour came to power, now it seems that an Englishmans home is the governments property to do what it likes with. For too long now these small green, pink, blue, PC, minority groups groups have had the ear of the government rather than the people they were elected to represent, What happened to Magna Carta for God's Sake?

    communibus From communibus on Tue Nov 25 10:15PM

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  9. There is something far more sinister underlying this case. The abuse of power by un-elected and elected individuals is systemic in Britain today. The citizen protests; the citizen is ignored... words alone have no effect upon the despots who roll roughshod over our human rights. The insidious catalogue of new laws that eat away at our freedoms are self-perpetuating... This Government deliberately create's threats, which in turn behoves them to pass more draconian laws, which results in more of our rights being eroded. This poor man is merely one more victim of the corrupt system that purports to be democratic. "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." How right you were Mr Orwell. We now live in a police State, controlled by foreigners'. C'mon you English Army; lets have a coup d' tat.

    g.deverall From g.deverall on Sun Nov 30 11:41AM

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  10. an english mans home is his castle always has been always will be they have defended them for years and should always do so good luck to him and i hope people see sense

    exportsvs From exportsvs on Mon Dec 01 03:33PM

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