UNITED KINGDOM-DAIRY FARMER EVICTED-
BOSBURY dairy farmer John Barron this week received an eviction notice telling him to quit his farm by Thursday, February 26.
But yesterday, Mr Barron applied to the county court to stay the eviction order while the Charities Commission investigates the Buchanan Trust, which owns Beaconhill Farm.
Mr Barron has been locked for some years in a dispute with the trust, and Herefordshire Council, which administers the farm for the trust, over his tenancy of the farm, where he keeps 50 Jersey cattle.
The trust was set up after the First World War to give former servicemen a place to farm. As an ex-serviceman, Mr Barron feels he has earned the right to stay on the farm.
His dispute with the council goes back to 2005, when he did not accept a new tenancy agreement, but Mr Barron says he has continued to pay his rent and is not in arrears. However, a High Court judge last summer ruled that the council has a legal right to repossess the farm.
A statement from the Charity Commission said: "We have informed the charity that they may be in breach of their duties and responsibilities as trustees if they proceed with the eviction. We have contacted the charity trustees to ask if they still intend to proceed with the eviction, and are currently awaiting a response from them."
George Dunn, of the Tenant Farmers’ Association, which is supporting Mr Barron, said: "He has very strong grounds to ask for the quashing of the eviction order."
Mr Barron said: "As far as I’m concerned, the county court should stop the eviction order in the light of what the Charity Commission has said."
Herefordshire Council spokesman John Burnett said: "The court found in favour of the trustees. The tenant has not appealed the decision and the required timescale has now lapsed. The decisions and actions of the trustees have been scrutinised, tested and vindicated through the legal process."