A COVENANT on a land deal could see a house building scheme in Raglan put into jeopardy.

Documents seen by the Beacon reveal that a restriction placed on the 1984 sale of land in Raglan between Anna Tribe and Neville and Andrew Crump, if upheld, could see the plan for 111 homes fall through.

A Land Registry search shows that the sale of the land included restrictive covenants put on by Mrs Tribe, two of which were time-related and have lapsed, and one, which campaigners claim is still active , restricts the owners from using the land for any other purpose other than agricultural.

A letter sent to her children in March this year by Mrs Tribe, former resident of Hill House who now lives in Milton Keynes, states that she wanted to ensure that: “Hill House and the houses along Monmouth Road would enjoy a good view and hence higher valuation if they had a clear line of sight towards the hills of Kingcoed”.

She went on to say in the letter: “We sold the enclosures in 1984 at a low agricultural land rate of £38,000 for 20 acres (£1,900 per acre). Our expectation was that planning permission would always be difficult to achieve. However if the planning position should ever change, then we wanted to ensure that the beneficiaries should be able to refuse the change of use or financially benefit from the huge increase in land value.”

Richborough Estates Partnership LLP are currently undertaking a mandatory public consultation prior to a pre-planning application on the land for residential development of 111 homes. Their lawyers have confirmed that they are satisfied that the proposed development of the land “would not constitute a breach of the restrictive covenant and as such our client intends to continue with the planning application.”

Richborough Estates now intends to apply to the courts for a declaration on the nature and extent of the restrictive covenant and that it would not be enforceable in the circumstances.

Campaigners against the plan hope that an appeal to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) will show that the restrictive covenant is still active and will uphold the spirit in which the restriction was made and require the developers to adhere to any ruling made.

A spokesperson for Richborough Estates said: “Richborough Estates is aware of the Covenant. The matter is the subject of legal proceedings and we do not propose to comment further at this time other than to confirm that Richborough does not expect it to delay the progress of its proposals for the site”.