A Sark Saga II: The fence has fallen

Wednesday 27 October 2021

A fence at the centre of a bitter row in Sark has finally been taken down.

Earlier this year, some of the trustees of La Seigneurie Gardens erected a fence without planning permission or without discussion with the Seigneur of Sark, who is the landowner.

Christopher Beaumont was preceded by his father, Michael Beaumont, who facilitated the creation of a trust to protect the gardens and assist in looking after a complicated estate.

The trust was split between Mr Beaumont, Charles Maitland – who helped create it, and Sue Daly. Ms Daly has since retired, and Mr Beaumont’s son took over when Michael passed away in 2016.

A decision was made earlier this year to erect a fence on the land - a decision which Major Beaumont said he was not a part of. He argued that planning permission had not been sought and it was un-sightly.

“The development control took the view, as did I, that the fence was not appropriate or permissible,” said Major Beaumont.

Finally the appalling fence comes down at regrettable cost to the charity. The landowner has prevailed. The “builder” is out if the picture completely. It’s a very good day for the Seigneural family and the residents of La Seigneurie Estate. pic.twitter.com/w09LMLdC5L

— Sarah Beaumont (@pencadlys) October 25, 2021

Pictured: Major Beaumont’s wife celebrated the removal of the face on Twitter. 

The decision to build it in the first place was made by Mr Maitland, who defended it back in March this year. He said it was erected simply to extend the grounds around Hathaways restaurant.

“Normally you don’t need planning permission for a 6ft fence,” he said at the time.

Sark’s Development Control Committee agreed with Major Beaumont that the fence should go, and so it has. 

“I was helping remove the fence panels yesterday, because essentially the trust has been told that it wasn’t allowed,” said Major Beaumont.

Despite the decision being made more than six months ago, the fence was retained until a lull in the tourist season, because some of the structure was made of asbestos.

“The builders used asbestos tiles to line the bottom edge of the fence, which they concreted in,” said Major Beaumont.

“We took the view that it was probably best to leave those asbestos tiles as they were during the season and wait until we had nobody around in the gardens.”

Pictured: The gardens boast a variety of plant species and rare flowers.

Following the debacle Major Beaumont is once again calling for Mr Maitland to retire from the trust.

“The particular trustee that caused the problem doesn’t perceive there to have been a problem in the first place and certainly has no intention on backing down from his original decision, which was taken completely autonomously without any discussion with other trustees or indeed with me as the landowner,” he said.

“Following this sort of thing he probably should resign, but he’s not showing any signs of doing that either - I’m at a loss as to why he just won’t go, it’s frankly beyond me.”

Mr Maitland said he has “put a great deal of time, energy, and resources into the trust.”

“Now we just need to work together, the Beaumonts and the trust, for the benefit of the island,” he said.

He confirmed to Express that he has no intention of resigning and took the opportunity to put a call out for more trustees to come on board and support the group.