Albert's Horse Sanctuary removed from charity list and council to prosecute

Dec 3 2009 by Joanne Douglas, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A FAMILY who run a horse sanctuary is being prosecuted for building on greenbelt land.

Mary Hepworth and her family run Albert’s Horse Sanctuary and a charity shop on Wakefield Road, Scissett.

But Barnsley Council is preparing a legal case against them for building stables on green belt land at Cawthorne without permission.

And yesterday the Charity Commission confirmed that the sanctuary has been removed from its register.

The Hepworth family say they are “in limbo” over the planning saga believing they “can’t do right for doing wrong”.

But Barnsley Council is now preparing a case to prosecute the family for building 12 stables without permission.

The appeal was heard by the Planning Inspector last May, who said that while he had “no reason to doubt the appellant’s claims that the site is being used as a charitable horse sanctuary” he concluded that their building amounted to inappropriate development in the greenbelt – no similar business facilities have been allowed in the area.

Mary Hepworth said: “We are in limbo, we’re still trying to get permission for the stables but they still want them to come down.

“We’ve put planning applications in but they always find something wrong with them.

“We’re trying to compromise, instead of 12 we’d settle for eight – we’ve still got horses to care for and every week we get calls asking us to take more, which we can’t do.”

The family has been offered alternative land but say it’s unsuitable.

Mary Hepworth, who has 23 horses, a donkey, pigs, sheep and goats at the Cawthorne site, added: “I don’t know if this is our last chance. We’ve been doing this for years now and we’re not getting anything out of it.”

Meanwhile, the sanctuary’s charity status has been removed.

Every charity is required to return their accounts to the Charity Commission annually, but the commission said yesterday it had failed to do so but could get their status back if it sent the required information.