England’s countryside protection watchdog is locked in a court fight with a rogue farmer they say is ploughing through ‘irreplaceable archeological remains’ and historic WWII relics in fields that he rents.

In 1991 Andrew Cooper became the tenant of National Trust-owned 67 hectare Croyde Hoe Farm, in North Devon, where he was paid around £200,000 in grants to maintain nine of his fields.

The land has been assessed by experts as containing important stone-age era remains and D-Day relics of ‘national significance’ – as uncultivated pasture.

But in 2012, Mr Cooper decided to return to ‘normal farming’ and has since unlawfully ploughed up a number of the fields and planted them with crops.

Lawyers for landscape protection watchdog Natural England say his action is threatening ‘irremediable harm’ to ‘irreplaceable archeological remains’ below the surface of the soil.

He was ordered to stop ploughing up the fields pending an archeological evaluation survey in 2017, but ignored the notice and at Exeter Crown Court in April 2021 was convicted on a guilty plea of cultivating without a Natural England environmental impact screening assessment and breaching the notice to stop.

He was hit with £31,500 in fines and costs in June 2021, but has continued his ‘unlawful activity,’ having gone on to plough up three more of the protected fields, ‘despite criminal convictions,’ lawyers for Natural England say.

But having obtained an interim injunction to stop him ploughing in May last year, Natural England then lost a bid to make the injunction permanent after a judge said they didn’t have the power to seek such an injunction.

Farmer Andrew Cooper outside the Court of Appeal in London ahead of a court battle with Natural England

They are now asking top judges in the Court of Appeal to overturn that ruling.

But Mr Cooper is fighting them, saying Natural England does not have the power or standing to bring the claim against him and challenging their lawyers to ‘bring it on’ in their bid to sue him.

The fields at the centre of the fight are at Croyde Hoe Farm, on Baggy Point headland on the north Devon coast.

They have been assessed by archeological experts who made preliminary investigations to be the site of a buried Mesolithic settlement, with thousands of flint arrowheads and other artefacts having been found there, the court heard.

They were also used as training grounds by American forces in the Second World War ahead of the D-Day landings and contain historic remains, including dummy pillboxes, trenches and graffiti left by a soldier who was killed in the battle.

The poignant signature ‘A.A. Augustine’ written in concrete when it was still wet, was left by Private Alfred Augustine of B Company, 146th Engineer Combat Battalion, before he was killed on Normandy’s Omaha Beach during the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944.

When Mr Cooper ploughed and planted some of the land, he was ordered to stop and remediate the fields by Natural England in September 2017.

But the farmer ignored the stop notice and continued to plough and lime most of a neighbouring field as well by March 2018.

Natural England took enforcement action against Mr Cooper for not complying with the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, leading to his criminal conviction and fine.

Then it sought a permanent civil court injunction to restrain the farmer from keeping on ploughing without Natural England’s consent for the land to be cultivated.

But at the High Court in Bristol in February this year, Judge Jonathan Russen KC dismissed Natural England’s claim, whilst leaving in place an earlier interim injunction, preventing damage to flint artefacts and other historical features at the site.

The remains of a pillbox used for training by WWII soldiers near Croyde Hoe Farm, on Baggy Point, near Woolacombe, Devon

The judge ruled that as a regulating body which has the power to prosecute under criminal law, Natural England does not have the legal standing to bring a civil claim, including applying for the injunction they are seeking against Mr Cooper.

The judge also found that whilst Natural England are responsible for preventing damage and harm to the ‘landscape’ of England, it does not have responsibility for archeological remains which lie hidden under the surface of the soil.

Archeological remains can form part of the landscape by definition, but only if they are visible on the surface in the contours of the land, the judge found.

Arguing that conclusion was wrong in the Court of Appeal, Richard Honey KC said that buried remains should be legally regarded as part of the fabric of the landscape, telling the court:

‘Natural England’s purpose of conserving the landscape includes for historic as well as aesthetic purposes. Lots of hidden things are still part of what comprises the landscape.’

The barrister said that vast quantities of arrowheads and other primitive tools had been found on the fields at the farm.

‘A number in the hundreds would be significant, but there were thousands on this farm,’ he told the judges.

‘What comprises the landscape of England?’ he asked.

‘The landscape is not only made up of the surface of the land, but the substance of the land itself.

‘This is a landscape of archeological significance. Finds indicate the presence of a hunter gatherer society in the stone age and marks the start of the continuous human presence in Devon after the last ice age.

‘It gives a historic aspect, time, depth and a sense of place to the landscape here.

‘The landscape does have a cultural or temporal aspect to it, not just an aesthetic aspect. It includes the sense of place and the historic dimension of the landscape on particular.

‘The injunction is (needed) to preserve the irreplaceable archeological remains, particularly when we are dealing with somebody as determined as Mr Cooper…to prevent irreversible and irremediable environmental damage.’

He argued that Natural England does have standing to bring a claim for an injunction.

Andrew Cooper became the tenant of National Trust-owned 67 hectare Croyde Hoe Farm in 1991

‘Statutory corporations such as Natural England can do anything which is reasonably incidental to their express general powers,’ he said.

‘There is no reason why these would exclude a power to litigate.’

However Mr Cooper, representing himself, urged appeal judges Lord Justice Coulson, Lord Justice Males and Lord Justice Holgate to uphold the High Court’s refusal to let Natural England sue him.

‘They said to me ‘would you rather take it to court?’ and I said, ‘bring it on’,’ he told the court, claiming that he had been given a document from Natural England in July 2012 before he started ploughing which classified all his fields as ‘cultivated land,’ not uncultivated.

‘The stop notice was totally unsupported….I don’t think they’ve got the standing.’

He said he believes Natural England is ‘ultra vires,’ a legal term meaning it does not have the authority to make the claim.

Mr Cooper also urged the judges to stand by the finding that Natural England have no power to protect England’s buried artefacts.

He criticised the findings on the site as being based on ‘bunkum’ and ‘archeology which is at best debatable’.

‘If you ask people who come to the farm – and there are thousands, it’s a tourist hotspot – they say ‘ooh, cows and sheep’. They don’t say it should be rewilded or say about the arrowheads or whatever.

‘All I want to do is be left alone to do my farming. The agreement I took was to be able to farm arably.

‘I am the legal tenant and until the National Trust try to evict me I am the land holder.

‘I say I want to go normal farming again. I don’t want to mess around with these silly environmental payments.

Overhead view Croyde Hoe Farm, where Andrew Cooper is the tennant, near Woolacombe, Devon

‘They are not interested in farming, they want to go all environmental.’

Mr Cooper told the court he is also relying on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects respect for family and private life.

‘I could lose my home with this injunction,’ he said.

Summing up, Lord Justice Coulson told the farmer: ‘You say they were ultra vires and effectively archeology was nothing to do with them.

‘We recognise this is extremely serious and important for you and your family.’

The appeal judges have now reserved their decision in the case until a later date, with Lord Justice Coulson saying’ ‘We need time to think about it..’

Speaking after Mr Cooper’s criminal conviction, Dawn Enright, of Natural England, said: ‘The historic environment is a finite, non-renewable resource. Once it is lost, it is gone forever. It cannot be recreated.

‘Impacts from cultivation are irreversible and over time may lead to the complete removal of archaeological remains and the significant displacement of remains such as flint tools.’

Bill Horner, county archaeologist of Devon County Council, added: ‘The making of stone tools by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers over a long period makes this a particularly important archaeological site. It marks the start of a continuous human presence in Devon after the ice ages.’

As a non-departmental public body, Natural England is independent of government, but the Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has the legal power to give it guidance.

Its powers include defining ancient woodlands, awarding grants, designating Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Sites of Special Scientific Interest, managing certain national nature reserves, overseeing access to open country and other recreation rights, and enforcing the associated regulations.



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