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by Barbara Miller • An East Dorset haulier says he is being forced out of business, faces "devastating" costs and has had to lay off four drivers after lasing a bitter 10-year battle to win planning permission for his yard.
John Coakes of Corfe Mullen, near Wimborne, appealed at the High Court last week against a Department of the Environment inspector's decision to refuse him retrospective planning permission to run his business from a green-belt site.
But Deputy Judge Arnold Vandermeer said he could find no fault in the inspector's decision that a road haulage business was an "inappropriate" use for land which is to be put in the green belt.
Coakes says he has been "singled out" by the council: "There are a lot of other industrial enterprises in the area, many of which use heavy goods vehicles, and they all have planning permission," he claims.
"We are only 100m from the boundary of a big quarry which they plan to turn into an infill site over the next 25 years." He adds that his land was formerly a pig farm which used trucks to move livestock. Mike Hirsh, assistant district planning officer with East Dorset council, says the other businesses in the green belt area were either there before the land was designated green belt in 1980 or they are also operating without authority.
"Action against them will also be pursued," says Hirsh, and he warns that if Coakes does not cease operating "with reasonable haste" the council may take out an injunction against him. Coakes is now deciding whether to pursue any further action.
He already has a legal bill of 16,500 and faces huge costs from the High Court case.
East Dorset district council originally refused Coakes planning permission shortly after he moved to Corfe Mullen in 1982 and it served an enforcement notice against the haulier's use of the land for a yard.