A charity set up by Holme Valley Parish Council is in hot water again after it was ordered to pay thousands to a couple for wrongly taking their land.
The Holme Valley Land Charity has been sued by Thurstonland cousins Jacqui Duns and Brian Herbert for legal fees racked up during a three year battle over a plot of land.
The Holmfirth based charity had already conceded the disputed plot at Top O’ Th’ Bank at a Land Registry adjudication in 2012.
But it refused to apologise or re-emburse Mrs Duns and Mr Herbert.
The duo sued the charity at Huddersfield County Court where a judge ruled it should pay them more than £4,000.
The court defeat is the latest in a litany of controversial incidents for the charity, which launched in 2009 with the aim of selling old quarry sites to make money for community projects.
But despite raising more than £130,000 through land sales so far, its projects so far include installing just one bench and sponsoring a school writing competition.
In the meantime the charity has been forced to give seven plots back, lost three legal disputes, been rapped by the Information Commissioner and Trading Standards and has a number of other ongoing land ownership disputes on its hands.
Mrs Duns’ dispute began after the charity claimed part of her family’s field and said it was going to sell it unless they bought it back for £5,000.
Despite the family having deeds proving they owned the unremarkable plot, which is worth about £1,000, the charity spent more than two years contesting their claim.
The charity backed down when the row ended up at an official Land Registry adjudication hearing, but only after Mrs Duns had ramped up more than £13,000 in legal fees.
Mrs Duns and Mr Herbert won just over £4,000 back at that time but decided to pursue the charity for the remaining £8,500 in the small claims court.
They are still more than £4,000 out of pocket.
It is thought the result of Mrs Duns’ and Mr Herbert’s case opens the door for the charity to sue Holme Valley Parish Council, who did the original legal work over the 27 plots of land.
Clr Greg Cropper, chairman of the charity, declined to comment on the claim.
Mrs Duns said the long-running battle had been “hell” but said they would fight on until the charity payed them back in full and offered a public apology.
She said: “The fight for justice continues because we have never had an explanation as to why they’ve done this when they’ve been told so many times they couldn’t take it.
“We also haven’t had an explanation as to how they took it.
“We want every single penny of our money back.”
Mr Herbert said they had been surprised when the charity turned up at court with a legal advocate.
He said: “It’s been a tough time, we’ve been banging our heads against a wall.
“They’ve never come out with any evidence whatsoever that they owned the land.
“We took them to the small claims court because we didn’t want it to cost any more money.
“We represented ourselves but they – still running costs up – took a solicitor, where the idea is to represent yourself.”
Mr Herbert added: “We’re not even asking for compensation, we just want our money back.”
The Examiner asked the charity why it had pursued the land in the face of evidence it had no claim to it.
In a statement, Clr Cropper said the charity had “repeatedly” asked Mrs Duns and Mr Herbert for the deeds but had not been furnished with “clear evidence of their legal title”.
But Mrs Duns said Clr Cropper had “failed to grasp” that the charity’s claim to the land was “bogus”.
She said: “It was in fact the endless procrastination in early negotiations by this charity which cost several extra thousands of pounds in legal fees and which finally forced us to go to court.
“The real issue here is how did this charity get the Registered Title in the first place without contacting interested parties as they are required to do and should have done?
“There was no consultation, public or private, they simply tried to take this land in secret and behind our backs even though the documents they held show that our family had a clear interest in and occupancy of this land.
“The first we knew was when they put it up for auction and we had to step in to stop the sale.”
Clr Cropper said: “One month before the hearing at Huddersfield County Court of the claim brought by Mrs Duns and Mr Herbert, the charity offered to pay to them an amount which the charity felt was reasonable.
“No response was received to this offer. The court awarded an equivalent amount which the charity was pleased to pay.”
But Mrs Duns responded said they had never received any offer in writing.
She added: “They have forced us to court three times and they have lost every time.”
The charity first announced its intentions after it hosted a land sale in December 2009 where 13 of the 27 plots were put on the market at a public auction.
Several were sold, raising more than £50,000. The latest accounts lodged with the Charity Commission reveal a total income of more than £137,000 of which only £54,000 has been spent.
The first blunder was confirmed in 2011 when the charity was forced to buy back one of the sites sold at auction. Swinden Knowle at Honley was public ‘Common Land’ but it had been sold to a local farmer for £8,500 and fenced off.
The charity has also been forced to give back five plots of land it had claimed that were owned by Yorkshire Water.
In 2012, the charity was rapped by the Information Commissioner for refusing to respond to Freedom of Information requests.
The charity also got into hot water after the Chief Constable of the Graveship of Holme, Arthur Quarmby, complained about its original name of Holme Valley (Graveship of Holme) Land Charity.
A document dated January 11, 2012 on the charity’s website reveals 11 of the 27 plots have been sold while a further six have had their “ownership transferred”.
It reveals ambitions to develop sites at Sude Hill and White Wells but describes others, including the popular Cliff quarry near Holmfirth as “complex.”
Holme Valley resident Stephen Green has been embroiled in a one man campaign for clarity on the charity’s claims to the plots of land.
Mr Green, who first raised the issues with the charity’s sale of protected ‘Common Land’ to a Honley farmer, has already reported the charity to Trading Standards, the Information Commissioner and the Charity Commission.
The Information Commissioner ruled the charity had breached the Environmental Information Regulations after it refused to reveal details about the land sales.
A Trading Standards investigation concluded that the advertisement for the Common Land did breach part of the Unfair Trading Regulations, but it took no action.
The Charity Commission has taken no action.
Mr Green said there were at least three other victims of the charity’s land grabs who were fighting their corners or had been forced to pay over the odds for plots that could have been disputed in court.
He said: “This has been going on for five years and it has caused absolutely horrendous stress.
“Jacqui is not the only person affected by this.
“A simple letter and a consultation could have saved the charity tens of thousands.”
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