An eco-warrior who wanted to turn his dad’s £845,000 farm into a haven for wildlife has lost a high court battle to his estranged brother, who has different ideas.
David Martin, 70, is passionate about ‘rewilding’ the land around Car Colston, Nottinghamshire, which he says his family have farmed since medieval times.
The naturalist feels he and his brother John should preserve some of the 62-acre site as an animal sanctuary, after inheriting it following the death of their dad Dennis.
For 15 years the pair have been fighting over the land, but after finally losing in court to his sibling, David fears a local tycoon racehorse breeder will snap it up and use his ‘angelic land’ for game shooting.
Retired postman John, 59, wants to sell most of the site to Nick Forman-Hardy, who has offered to pay £845,000 – around three times its market value.
During their dispute, David’s son James threatened to fill John’s access across the land with a herd of ’20 pigs’ if parts were sold to the businessman.
But now the animal lover’s dreams are in shreds after a judge backed his younger brother’s bid to sell most of the site to their multi-millionaire neighbour.
Each of the Martins will retain only a small portion of the land, which they inherited from their dad after his death in 1990.
Two years later they sold the family farmhouse and 32 acres to Mr Forman-Hardy, whose family made its fortune in newspapers.
But the magnate, who is reputedly worth £100 million, built a large house on the land and has since made a series of increasingly generous offers for remaining Martin acres.
David, who claims a close bond with his ‘angelic land’, steadfastly refused to sell up and suggested he and John split it equally between themselves.
He has already rewilded some of 11 fields already, providing a refuge for rare species including birds, bats, grass snakes, butterflies, moths, insects and plants.
In a letter to John’s ex-partner he said: ‘The land is not for us to destroy but for future generations to enjoy.
‘The fields have always been a haven for wildlife, but in the last 30 years the land has developed into a unique habitat full of every living thing imaginable.’
David told the court he feared the land would not be conserved by Mr Forman-Hardy and ‘believed he would use the land to rear birds for shooting.’
Judge Karen Shuman said she had heard no evidence about Mr Forman-Hardy’s precise plans for the land.
But she said he ‘clearly has a special interest in purchasing the land surrounding his own land and house and is willing to pay more than the market value for it.’
John, who retired early for health reasons, accepted the the family’s strong historic bond with the land but said they only owned it ‘upwards of 100 years before World War One’.
Dog walker banned from keeping pets after five ‘went missing’ in her care
He said he wants to use some of the sale’s proceeds to provide for his young family and said David could easily create a sanctuary with the small piece of the farm he’d have left.
Judge Shuman said: ‘What relationship they had has utterly broken down. By 2006 the brothers were unable to speak to each other about any aspect of their co-ownership of the land.’
The court heard how one parcel of land, which David’s son threatened to move 20 pigs onto, was needed for vehicular access to John’s home and became a ‘flashpoint’ between the warring siblings.
The judge accepted John’s request for the sale of five land parcels to Mr Forman’s company and to divide the remaining two between him and his sibling.
She said there was no intention on the part of Dennis or his father that the land should be kept in the family or preserved as a wildlife haven.
The 3.4 acre slice of land handed to David, is currently rented out and it will be up to him whether he wants to rewild it or not.
Judge Shuman added: ‘This is a sad family case, but nevertheless one that should be capable of resolution between the brothers without recourse to further hearings before the court, and the inevitable costs consequences.’
