The building at Summerhill Clough Farm before it was cleared
National park officers have taken enforcement action to clear an eyesore building put up within view of one of the country’s top rockclimbing venues.
The Peak District National Park Authority has restored the site at Summerhill Clough Farm, near Upper Hulme, east of The Roaches, which it said is a sensitive moorland area.
The authority said the tenant of the land had failed to comply with enforcement notices so contractors were brought in and a bill will be sent to him.
The notices had required the tenant to restore the land to its original condition after he put up a timber building made of pallets; stored a caravan, a truck body, scrap, pallets and other items; erected unauthorised fences and gates and constructed a long track dug out of a steep moorland hillside.
The authority said the moorland is prominent in panoramic views from The Roaches, Hen Cloud and Ramshaw Rocks, and had suffered from unauthorised development since 2003.
The site before it was cleared by contractors
John Herbert, chair of the Peak District National Park Authority’s planning committee, said: “This is an area that is popular with locals and visitors as it has stunning panoramic views of remote national park moorlands.
“Due to the sensitive ecology of the moorland we decided that we could not wait any longer for the tenant to comply with the planning enforcement notices. So we have employed our own contractors to carry out the work and will be billing the tenant for the work carried out.
“It is not acceptable for the visual beauty of this area to be damaged in this way and we are determined to pursue this case until the land is fully restored.”
The authority issued five planning enforcement notices in 2009. The landowner and tenant appealed against the notices but their appeals were dismissed by a planning inspector who said the appearance of the land was a ‘truly appalling visual blight on the scenic beauty of what is otherwise a breathtaking landscape’.
The planning enforcement notices came into effect on 22 June 2010 and required the tenant to carry out work by mid February 2011 to demolish the building, stop storing items on the land and restore the land to heather moorland.
But the national park authority said despite negotiations with the tenant the work was not carried out so it decided to step in and do the work itself.
