Experts examine Madonna’s grass – BBC News Article
A planning inquiry hearing Madonna‘s appeal to ban ramblers from parts of her £9m country estate has heard details of the land’s make-up.
The pop star claims 100 acres of land at the 1,200-acre Ashcombe House estate has been inaccurately classified as open country.
The Countryside Agency has classified 12 plots as “downland”, offering public access on a provisional map.
Madonna is appealing against the classification in a hearing.
The Agency has been charged with mapping areas of England to implement the Countryside Rights of Way Act, 2000.
Under the act, people will have the right to access any land registered on the final map as open country – mountain, moor, heath or down.
Dr Alan Jones, director of environmental sciences at the RPS planning, transport and environment consultancy, conducted a botanical survey on the estate in July 2003 to classify grasslands.
He concluded five of the 12 disputed plots were not downland and should not be mapped as open country land.
Dave Elvin QC, representing Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie, has argued that the land was farmland, as opposed to open country, because it contained semi-improved grassland and not semi-natural grassland.
The hearing at the Chase Hotel in Shaftesbury, Dorset, heard Dr Jones claim there were no distinct boundaries between improved and unimproved grassland as it was a transitory process.
The Countryside Agency therefore had to exercise judgment when making a distinction and this would be open to challenge, he said.
Dr Jones said: “The Countryside Agency is drawing the distinction between semi-improved and unimproved grassland in the wrong place.
“The test is whether grassland is unimproved or not, not whether it is akin to unimproved.”
Mr Elvin has also argued that allowing public access to the estate would breach the couple’s human rights.
Madonna and Mr Ritchie did not attend the third day of the week-long inquiry, which was adjourned until 11 May.
Source: BBC News