The faulty petition ink at bottom of page has been corrected
To all our many supporters. We are delighted that our local MP Victoria Collins has offered to speak to the National Trust and contact the Secretary of State for DEFRA on our behalf. This gives rise to a plan to get Little Heath Farm back.
If you do not wish to read all the following, just go down to the bottom to the "Actions to help and support getting back Little Heath Farm"
What we state here is based on well documented facts, and there are other things they did that we do not reveal at this time. Bear in mind that National Trust owns millions of acres across England, if your house or farm or land has a small bit of land between your entrance and the road, it maybe National Trust land and the same could happen to you if you carry out any development or major improvement with planning permission - they told us that it is any increased value within past 20 years. It would not be worth their while to go after small value improvements and small extensions. Residents around Berkhampsted Common take note !!!!
We give the following in response to requests for and promises to give a bit more info about what has been done to us. We are somewhat taken aback that over last week after eviction from Little Heath on 1st April with 14 days to clear out tons of plants and materials, we have been told of what seems to be a ground swell of antipathy towards the National Trust that many we spoke to say has been building for several years. Over 80% of people we spoke to now dislike the National Trust, some saying they had cancelled their membership. We are told that the National Trust is now under the control of 'business people' focussed on reaping as much as they can from the public. Of course, this is spent on the vast amount of money needed for historic building upkeep, but, methods used are, it seems, becoming counter productive causing alienation - as is in our case.
A magical and historic place Little Heath is, as many of our customers love, a magical place where time seems to stands still while choosing plants and enjoying tea, coffee and home cooked cakes and light lunches, either sitting inside or out amongst the flowers, trees, bird songs and beautiful setting in the greenbelt next to an area of outstanding natural beauty. The slightly dilapidated look is what people say they love. We blend with and look after nature. Having been nearly wiped out by Covid, we had just fought back to income covering costs. It has always been run out of love for the place.
It is a site of unique historical interest as well. if you were to go down our inner road between the listed Farmhouse and Barn (now residential) on the right, and the old barns on the left that were converted to residential use during the 1980's and 1990's, they still looks much the same as it did in c.1830 when built. Almost nothing facing the Farmhouse has changed and you can easily picture horse drawn hay ricks passing up between the buildings. As far as we have been able to find out, it is the only intact unchanged early 1800's farmyard, and this deserves historical merit and protection. Since David and Ingrid purchased Little Heath Farm in 1970 and rescued very dilapidated building, their whole objective has been to preserve the historic buildings.
What is happening now Now all that is about to be destroyed and probably bulldozed away due to the financial greed of the National Trust. For over 420 years Little Heath Farm has passed over a small strip of land along Little Heath Lane which the National Trust took ownership of when it was created in 1895 and it inherited Little Heath Farm's long standing right of access over that strip of land. National Trust even wrote to confirm that Little Heath Farm had Prescriptive Rights of access which gives legal right to pass over the land and that this applied to all existing uses (Tearoom, Shops, Garden Nursery and 5 residential cottages).
The 5 cottages were in bad condition after 30+ years of being rented out, and a full ground up renovation was started after planning consultation. For this a short-term loan was taken out with MT Finance for the work, which after renewal expired June 2023 and then extended 3 months. As two of the cottages were so badly decayed with rot, we had to rebuild 90% of them costing a huge amount of extra money. Four months before the MTF loan expired we took out a replacement loan. For this to complete the Lenders solicitors required the Prescriptive Right of access, which was in any case legally binding, to be formalised by documentation.
What National Trust has done In early 2022, National Trust proposed an access Easement agreement having rejected other forms to agreement we proposed. Despite many written pleas to issue the Easement, nothing happened until February 2023 (11 months later) when we they wrote to assure it would now be done. Once again nothing happened, we wrote increasingly demanding emails saying about the damage and huge cost the delays were causing us. Then in October 2023 (now 15 months later) after we threatened to sue National Trust if they caused us the loss of Little Heath Farm, they started work. We had to pay many £000's for their expensive Valuer to assess the Farm value and their solicitors to draw up the Easement.
National Trust refused to grant an access Easement for the existing uses that they agreed we had Prescriptive Rights for. They had their eyes on making money. So, they produced the Easement in October 2023 demanding an immediate payment of £335k where they used our previous planning consultation for converting the old shops and store etc to residential as if it was a granted planning permission greatly increasing the value of the Farm which was not the case. For this they demanded £335k as a share of the increased value they had assessed - a value that did not exist as no planning permission was at that time granted, nor an application planned nor then intended - and as we told National Trust, we may never do as paying £335k made it unviable.
Our new loan provider terminated the loan application as a result which we managed to get them to reinstate.
Angry negotiations took place with National Trust. It took another 4 or 5 months (20 months after they said they would do it) for National Trust to reach an Easement re-wording acceptable to the new loan provider where the £335k was only payable if the old shop, stores etc was converted. National Trust agreed that if we proceeded it was on the basis of "no harm to Little Heath". BUT, the damage had been done. With all the months of delays, MT Finance had applied penalty interest clocking up at some £18k per month making the amount to be repaid £200k larger than the new loan that had been agreed early 2023 and signed off. So that loan, being then pointless, collapsed. We then found a new loan of £1.1m, but by the time that concluded, this 2nd replacement loan provider also found that the inclusion in the Easement of a £335k as a future penalty devalued the Farm value, and by then MT penalty interest was some £20k/month. David and Ingrid tried surrendering their own house to the lender to make up the value, but the valuation of it was not enough.
National Trust had no lawful reason not to grant a simple unconditional Easement for the existing uses. This would have enabled the first replacement loan to conclude repaying MT Finance before the extension period expired and all would have been well. But they did refuse that, instead focussing on bolting in the potential of £335k for a later possible conversion that may not happen.
In March this year we had to tell MT Finance that it was impossible to find replacement funding with the National Trust pending claim for £335k and accepted that they would proceed with the re-possession that we had managed to prevent with numerous court hearings while we had thought the loan applications would succeed.
Who is to blame
We do not blame MT Finance, they are fully entitled to long-overdue repayment of their loan. We do not not oppose National Trust seeking a share of uplifted value obtained by passing over their land, they have to fund the huge cost of preserving our Nation's architectural history, and we had told them that.
We DO BLAME National Trust for the appalling and indefensible way that they carried out the Easement agreement with complete disregard for time and the £000's of interest they were told repeatedly that we suffered month after month while they delayed and delayed and delayed, until it killed us.
Consequences Because of National Trust, over £85,000 has been paid out in legal costs and fees, over £300,000 in interest and over £300,000 that David and Ingrid spent on the refurbishment of the cottages by selling another house left to Ingrid by her Mother, plus the loss of Little Heath Farm. They are distressed beyond measure that after years of work to preserve Little Heath Farm buildings and its setting, they have lost it all.
I am Jonathan writing this, who along with my wife Vanessa who owned (and now has lost) the Nursery business. Tearoom customer may know me as the elderly man (77) in a blue hat and overalls often rushing into the Tearoom to repair yet another problem to keep it going .
We also have lost all the money we put in and all the work we did since 2018 to restore the Nursery. I managed Little Heath for David and Ingrid as they live in Wales, and worked on the cottage renovations. So, I have lost all that work for which I would have been paid when they were sold. My health has suffered hugely with 18 months of constant stress finding a solution for David and Ingrid. David is 87 and severely ill having suffered a bad Covid attack Christmas 2022 which left him totally bed bound, no use of legs and other difficulties. Ingrid is distraught trying to deal with matters herself when she is a teacher for disadvantaged and problem children. They cannot even afford to heat their home.
Then there is the Tearoom team under Helena who operated Little Heath Tearoom for us and also operated her Dottie about Cake from there, along with the ever cheerful Sally, and Jo who made all our cakes, and the team of hard working students and part time staff. Helena who started in August 2020 then shut down by Covid until March, worked so hard to rebuild customer base lost by Covid with her large entourage of friends. It was back to break-even trading and about to go into profit this year for her. All is now lost.
Actions to help and support getting back Little Heath Farm
1. Please click this link to take part in the Change.org petition we have started
Members of the firm now managing Little Heath Farm commented that the site will be cleared. We need MT Finance to understand how much support we have to protect Little Heath and to hold back actions that will destroy the setting and buildings while we turn the plan to buy back Little Heath into a reality. If that cannot be done quickly we will re-think actions. We do not want to cause MT Finance suffering if there is no reality in buying back, at the same time we do not want a unique place destroyed.
2. Please help this by sending MT Finance a short email expressing your support for protecting what is currently there. Remember, they are not to blame for all this - so far !!!!