ENFORCEMENT officers have slapped notices on the unlawful construction at Yorkley Court Farm.

The Forest of Dean District Council planning committee have ordered the demolition and removal of a builders yard built without planning permission at the site off Lydney Road.

They also require that the landowner returns the Grade II listed 17th century farmhouse to its original special historical architecture.

Forest of Dean planners have given the landowner two months to submit a planning application to regularise the motorcycle tracks and a month to submit an application for the fence and concrete blocks which were placed at the agricultural access of Lydney Road.

Councillor Alan Grant (UKIP, Pillowell), who spoke at the meeting, said: “The people of Yorkley get the impression that this landowner operates above the law as he appears to do what he likes with very little consequence.

“These breaches aren’t simply someone unknowingly slightly stepping outside the rules but an arrogant and deliberate attempt to do what they want with little regard for the rules and regulations.”

The councillor said that noise from an unauthorised motocross track was unacceptable as it had been built without planning permission. He also stated that the destruction of mature hedgerows to be replaced with industrial style fencing was totally out of place in the rural countryside.

He concluded: “But causing substantial harm to the listed farmhouse building by just ripping out period features with no sympathy shown to protect is the destruction of the district’s heritage.”