A doctor and her husband are facing a £400,000 bill over a bridleway which the county council says runs through their property.
Dr Dawn Carnell, 59, a cancer specialist and her husband, David Moore, 63, have spent the last six years embroiled in a legal battle about the bridleway, with their most recent loss in the High Court pushing their total bill to £325,000.
Remaining undeterred, the couple are continuing in the courts, planning to take the matter to the Court of Appeal, which would cost them a further £75,000.
The case involves Breach House in Little Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, which the couple purchased 10 years ago for £1.2million.
Having spent significant time and money renovating the previously dilapidated property, it is now worth several millions.
However, locals in the Herfordshire village complained when a public right of way – run through the property’s grounds, they claimed – was blocked off by signs and locked gates.
Hertfordshire county council and the Planning Inspectorate issued rulings in the local’s favour.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mr Moore said: “The cost doesn’t really come into it at this point in time.
Dr Dawn Carnell and her husband, David Moore have been embroiled in courts over a bridleway dispute
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NHS
“It’s whether you think you’re right or wrong.”
With his wife, who works at University College Hospital in London, supporting him “100 per cent” with the ongoing case, the couple are determined to take the case as far as it can go.
They claim the council is at fault as it provided them with inaccurate documents when they purchased the property.
Locals, including ramblers and horse riders, claim they have not been able to use a bridleway that has been accessible for a significant amount of time.
Robins Nest Road in Little Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire where the bridleway in question is located
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GOOGLE STREET VIEW
Wayne Morris, a retired Metropolitan police inspector and now chairman of the parish council who lives next door to the couple, has been “keeping his fingers crossed” they’d drop the matter.
He said: “They will not let it go.
“I think with the amount that they’ve spent going to the High Court that they will just carry on.”
The dispute started in 2019, when residents claimed the bridleway route had been blocked off.
Tensions have risen over the years, with Mr Moore filing complaints of criminal damage, including his cars being scratched and harassment.
At a four-day planning inquiry, the council’s senior definitive map officer, Gavin Harbour-Cooper, said the authority had investigated the route as far back as 1956 and concluded it passed through Breach House.
However, when the official “definitive map” was drawn up three years later, it showed the incorrect route, despite the accompanying statement containing the correct information.
Further evidence came from Nigel Adams, founder of online estate agent BigBlackHen.com, whose parents owned the house between 1973 and 1985.
Mr Adams told the inquiry he personally handled the sale to Mr Moore and Dr Carnell in 2015 and said he repeatedly discussed the bridleway and its route through the land.
William Marques, who lived in Breach House during the 1960s, also recalled using the bridleway to reach his grandparents’ home, saying the only alternative route by road was “too dangerous”.
Mr Moore, however, has consistently denied being told about the bridleway when he bought the property.
He told the inquiry that the council admitted in 2020 that bridleway signs near his home were wrong and had them removed.
“When I purchased the property, I was not made aware of the existence of a bridleway crossing the property,” he said.
The case was heard at the High Court on November 5 and 6, with the judge dismissing the couple’s appeal earlier this month.
Referring to the “inherent implausibility” of their arguments, the judge refused them permission to appeal – though they can still apply directly to the Court of Appeal.
Mr Moore insists the couple are not disputing the existence of a right of way, but its precise location and suggested the council is responsible for their legal ordeal.
He said: “We followed the correct procedures.
“What Hertfordshire County Council have done is shoot themselves in the foot because they’ve fought tooth and nail – at a cost of £1 million, I’d guess – to show themselves to be negligent.”
The council said it submitted £13,791.70 in costs to the court.
A spokesman said it welcomed the High Court’s decision and confirmed the bridleway would be formally recorded on the county’s definitive map if no further legal action is taken.