Regarding
With regard to the burnt out vehicle, as this has now been moved on to private land, you will need to contact TDC yourself to request that this is moved. Tina Scotland is the Abandoned Vehicle Clerk at TDC and may be able to help.
If the Parish Council had not removed the posts which had prevented use by 4x4s over 12 years there would be no burned out vehicle - the clear result of arson. As I have said, this was the culmination of a malicious campaign by the PC that had no basis in law. The 'vehicle' was removed at my request so that people could use the track and avoid seeing the centre of a very morbid, indeed evil picture. 2 women walked up today as Richard and I were burning the large amount of brash I had to remove to allow the 'vehicle' to be lifted out.
Please contact Ms Scotland directly.
I will await the letter from Mr Rowlands.
David
ps Please interpret the acronym HWC More Kafka?
On 06/07/2020 7:03 pm, Suzanna Hughes wrote:
Dear David
Two members of the Parish Council met with Devon County Council's Public Rights of Way Officer, Jonathan Rowlands and walked the rights of way from Gulmswell Farm to No Man's Land and back. Consideration was given to the issues regarding maintenance of hedges, banks and surfaces. It was acknowledged that these are matters for Devon County Council (not the Parish Council) and consequently, Jonathan will write to you directly about them.
It was agreed that he would seek contractors to undertake some clearance work on Gulmswell Lane so that landholders are enabled access to undertake their maintenance responsibilities on an ongoing basis. This work will include scraping the deep mud near Garden Barn to enable drainage of surface water to the stream.
With regard to the burnt out vehicle, as this has now been moved on to private land, you will need to contact TDC yourself to request that this is moved. Tina Scotland is the Abandoned Vehicle Clerk at TDC and may be able to help.
Kind regards
Suzanna
Thank you Suzanna,
Passion yes. But law also, and common decency. No point whatsoever in meeting either person. The latter was complicit with Dr Fox and the H with Combe PC in allowing, indeed encouraging, the use of this Ancient Drove Track by 4x4s. As the PC knows, I have cared for this since about 1980, and first restored two neglected buddles.
Extraordinary that a so called 'PRWO' should be so involved in unavoidable destruction. It is of course a Public Right of Way and has been for centuries before any overweening bureaucracies imposed themselves.
I presume too that he was aware of the evidence I related to you and the Parish Council of the continued and severe destruction, especially of the ancient hedge bank which I own. I add the plants on either side of the track, and the definite damage done to the roots of very susceptible trees - especially cherries. I emphasise that he never made contact with me, neither in October 2012, nor since. Any principled PRWO would speak with adjoining land owners, and those that owned the track to half way across its width. I had as I have previously said had courteous association with Mr Bowyer the Teignbridge Highways Officer, and later with Mr Cassidy the footpaths officer for DC.
As for the former, Councillor Alistair Dewhirst, I assume by his lack of registered concern regarding the damage being done, and causing a retired surgeon great distress, that he too was complicit with the council. I did receive a magisterial letter from him regarding buddles and land owners' responsibilities, and the hidden hydrant 50x up from Home House where we used to live. I did not have the time to reply. I had concluded that he was out of touch. His letter did not strike the necessary co-operative tone towards a senior citizen who had been deeply involved in South Devon as a surgeon, and locally in the parish.
You write on behalf of the PC. It's unfortunate that you feel there is no point meeting with Cllr Dewhirst and Jonathan Rowlands to discuss the issues you are so passionate about. It is beyond chutzpah that you are asked to do so. Those members of the PC who are not familiar with the writings of Franz Kafkar need only read this and the former correspondence.
I say, in perfect truth, that the Parish Council has been negligent as regards this Ancient Drove Track. I have previously questioned a vindictive element vis a vis Dr Fox and his promotion of the closures of our vital Community Hospitals ** I say that the actions and silence of the PC in ignoring my great concerns about its damage have been malicious. Any judge reading the voluminous correspondence would conclude that.
I ask one question before finishing this correspondence finally. You said DCC would remove the burned out vehicle. Through what agency did you confirm that?
The DCC has never taken any part in its maintenance, whereas I have on the contrary spent some hundreds of hours in doing so - mostly in clearing the buddles due mostly to the 4x4 traffic, and paid good labour to help me in this. I estimate around £500 at least. I thought - 'how long would it take for the DCC to do this, what further destruction of the track below would result, and what is the DCC track record in minor roads?' You might know that pot holes cannot get reported as 'emergencies' unless the hole is over 4.5 inches deep and 'cliff edge' edge at its distant face. I know that potholes can be lethal or cause very severe injuries a quarter as deep to cyclist speeding down from Haytor at c. 40 mph. Given several weeks of further delay I repaired two very dangerous ones myself last July with quick setting concrete within 5 days of bringing the emergencies to the Highways department. You might know this is out-sourced to an international corporation - Skanska. I could not live with myself, having tended victims with severe brain injuries on ventilators, or in their 'recovered' states - often with hemiplegia and gross dysphasia.
The vehicle has been lifted out of the track - in fact at almost its deepest point by a contractor. It is on bearers for later removal, and over two membranes so the 'washings' can be collected and analysed for likely toxic and non-degradable chemicals. You will have seen from the piece on my web site that soil samples will be taken as well.
The vehicle can be seen from the main gate into my wood pasture, past the St Catherine's climbing rose in the hedge on the right. (Now widely propagated, as with the 10 I gave recently to Garden House, Buckland Monachorum. A wonderful gift from John West, a rose grower, and late patient and friend. The contrast is more than poignant'.)
I note the mechanisms re elections etc. and thank you for your usual conscientious detail. I note the further 'kicking' of our democracy with the unnecessary postponement of elections due to C19. Search Covid on my website.
I will next contact you with the small bill for restoring the stone facing, and later with a round estimate for turfing the hedge bank. In places I estimate that about a two feet width at least has been planed away by the 4x4s. I nearly wept when we 'filmed' it last Thursday.
But last - a list of the thefts etc of items placed by me in exercise of my right to preserve my property, and out of respect for our forebears.
1. The original removal of the two steel posts in 2012 by the PC. Dumped in the wood pasture.
2. A removable post last Autumn, set by me and Mark Blaber. Pulled out whilst the fast setting cement was still 'green'. ie within an hour.
3. A short post with a No Entry sign at the top - in part to stop downward travel by 4x4s and the need to reverse up, with yet more destruction when the large cherry was met three-quarters of the way down. Dumped.
4. A sweet chestnut stake with a notice recording my rights - at the same time - stolen.
5. Early this year, clearing two completely blocked buddles (a task undertaken through volunteers by the PC), and at the same time removing a 12" diameter hazel about 50 yards up that was obstructing the path - walkers had to crouch right down to get under it. Richard Penellum and I placed a waste concrete lintel (kindly given by Mr and Mrs Glue) at the top. We turfed it either side for looks and so the trail bikes could ride easily over it. The purpose was to keep storm water on the main Ridge Byeway and to stop further V damage to the drove track. That was stolen in a week.
6. On the 23rd May, Richard and I inserted a repaired and removable post (cost with padlock at least £50) in a good socket with fast setting cement. A short post was placed on my bank to stop further severe trampling. That was removed within a week. Stolen. Crime number you know.
7. Again on that 23st, I carried an ovoid boulder of volcanic origin up in the link box. It weighed at least half a tonne and was decorative by my linhay. Richard set it well in by the S bend 50 yards below the top. That stopped the fire appliance but the Ford Focus was got over it. This was one further attempt to stop terrible damage to the ancient hedge bank which the PC has maliciously encouraged. This was removed a few days after the fire. A dummy CCTV notice was taken off an ash close by. The people who stole the boulder must have had a crane of sorts and special kit to grapple it. And a ladder.
The PC will note the allies it has.
I will follow with an image of the wreck sitting in a beautiful wood pasture I have created with Nature by my hand. All to be posted on
https://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/ https://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/search?searchword=my%20woods%20and%20gardens&ordering=newest&searchphrase=all
https://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/46-articles/my-woods-garden/310-re-car-fire-vv006111-02062020
kind regards
David (Halpin MB BS FRCS)
** I see that I recorded my strongest objections to the closure of Ashburton Community Hospital and others, as early as July 2012, and in a public meeting.
On 27/06/2020 12:07 am, Suzanna Hughes wrote:
Dear David
d).
To the clerk to the Haccombe with Combe Parish Council - Mrs Suzanna Hughes LLB 25th June 2020
Dear Suzanna,
You have an unenviable job.
There is no point in my meeting Councillor Dewhirst and Mr Rowlands. Any meeting should have been in October 2012 when Dr Fox was urging, I presume, the removal of the two posts - top and bottom, which I had placed there in c.2000 to stop further damage to the ancient hedge bank which I own. I also own that eastern half of the ancient drove track. I have not laboured the latter because I have not had the mental energy - especially given the continued malicious policy of the Haccombe with Combe Parish Council. )PC)
I have in repeated e-mails to you, and thus to the PC, told of of the damage to the bank, to the roots of often old and neglected trees, to the bed of the track itself etc. The PC has shown no concern at all. It has promoted the use of 4x4s. The damage to the bank is extreme. It was filmed by a good couple yesterday and will be added to this posting on my web site. I could have wept https://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/46-articles/my-woods-garden
It can be compared with the video of 3 minutes + which you confirmed you had seen and which was made by WilstshireByeways - ironically a trail bike group. (I used to repair these at Torbay hospital - sometimes down to the age of 9 years) This video has been downloaded and will be added on my web site. It shows a footpath/bridle way BEFORE the removal by the the two posts, and I have presumed made in 2012. There are hedge row plants on either side crowding in.
I advise that the past and present members of the PC who agreed to the removal of the posts, some of whom you told me stood round in appreciation at the removal by posts by a mini-digger (driver anonymous), read Franz Kafka's The Trial. I also call for the resignation of these destructive members of the Parish Council of Haccombe with Combe. Councillor Dewhirst should join them. I offered to meet him and show him the damage done by these motorised vandals. He in effect refused. He wanted to be guided by a PC member instead! That a DC and TD councillor supported the use by 4x4s of an Ancient Drove Track which the DC has no lien over should and will be publicised - at least on my website.
I am aware that a connection to the PC is sympathetic to my sustained campaign for conservation, re this track and much more widely. eg My three woods in Combe where we lived from 1975 to 2000. The day after the PC monthly meeting in February, I met 2 men just below the ford. They had been up to take a disc out of the very large and old wild cherry (gean -Prunus avium) so people and horses could pass. They were good men with honest eyes. They said 'we have left it Mr Halpin so that 4x4s cannot get past.' That was very heartening for me.
I will write only once more to you Suzannah whilst this PC is in place, and Councillor Dewhirst. I will relate how the 4x4 vandals have destroyed or removed, or stolen everything that I have done in the exercise of my rights to protect my property, for public enjoyment and - most importantly, for the preservation of both our heritage and the natural world.
This firing, with an explosion **, of this sold on + Ford Focus (PC Radford), is the culmination of actual wickedness set in place by Dr Matthew Fox, with the support of a majority (I presume) of the then PC, and the so called Public Rights of Way Officer, Mr Rowlands.
for truth and with kind regards
David Halpin MB BS FRCS
ps I ask again re elected versus co-opted members, and what would trigger an election for a new council serving the parish in the best way. One for instance that listened to a 'conservationist' in his 81st year who had served on the same council, sometimes as chairman, and who had happily done many worthwhile things in the beautiful parish he and his wife were part of.
** parts blown out, up and down the track. See bonnet.
On 24/06/2020 1:07 pm, Suzanna Hughes wrote:
Dear David
Jonathan Rowlands (PROW Officer) and County Cllr Dewhirst are available on Monday afternoon to meet on the track. Would you be free at around 2pm to join them?
Suzanna
Dear Ms Richmond, and the Chairman of the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority,
I have been re-assured by a fire fighter that the Compressed Air Foam is not toxic.
I am surprised that the Fire Authority has no access to relevant laboratories. Indeed, I cannot believe it. All those fires - tyre dumps, industrial estate firms say with modern resins, that fire of a 'firework' factory in East Devon etc etc. 'Heavy metals.' If the Authority, or other responsible authority - DCC etc - do not investigate for toxic residues, especially the non-degradable, they are negligent.
And yet the authority, Chairman Mrs Randall-Johnson, spent many, many thousands of our pounds on a sham consultation which I responded to with energy. I had seen and responded to, over thousands of hours, sham consultations re the wicked closure of our Community Hospitals. They were templates for the one for 'reconfiguration of the Fire and Rescue Service'.
I recognise, with sympathy, that you are constrained in this second e-mail to me.
I finish with a copy of an e-mail, just sent to the clerk to the Parish Council
for truth
David Halpin MB BS FRCS
To the clerk to the Haccombe with Combe Parish Council - Mrs Suzanna Hughes LLB 25th June 2020
Dear Suzanna,
You have an unenviable job.
There is no point in my meeting Councillor Dewhirst and Mr Rowlands. Any meeting should have been in October 2012 when Dr Fox was urging, I presume, the removal of the two posts - top and bottom, which I had placed there in c.2000 to stop further damage to the ancient hedge bank which I own. I also own that eastern half of the ancient drove track. I have not laboured the latter because I have not had the mental energy - especially given the continued malicious policy of the Haccombe with Combe Parish Council. )PC)
I have in repeated e-mails to you, and thus to the PC, told of of the damage to the bank, to the roots of often old and neglected trees, to the bed of the track itself etc. The PC has shown no concern at all. It has promoted the use of 4x4s. The damage to the bank is extreme. It was filmed by a good couple yesterday and will be added to this posting on my web site. I could have wept https://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/46-articles/my-woods-garden
It can be compared with the video of 3 minutes + which you confirmed you had seen and which was made by WilstshireByeways - ironically a trail bike group. (I used to repair these at Torbay hospital - sometimes down to the age of 9 years) This video has been downloaded and will be added on my web site. It shows a footpath/bridle way BEFORE the removal by the the two posts, and I have presumed made in 2012. There are hedge row plants on either side crowding in.
I advise that the past and present members of the PC who agreed to the removal of the posts, some of whom you told me stood round in appreciation at the removal by posts by a mini-digger (driver anonymous), read Franz Kafka's The Trial. I also call for the resignation of these destructive members of the Parish Council of Haccombe with Combe. Councillor Dewhirst should join them. I offered to meet him and show him the damage done by these motorised vandals. He in effect refused. He wanted to be guided by a PC member instead! That a DC and TD councillor supported the use by 4x4s of an Ancient Drove Track which the DC has no lien over should and will be publicised - at least on my website.
I am aware that a connection to the PC is sympathetic to my sustained campaign for conservation, re this track and much more widely. eg My three woods in Combe where we lived from 1975 to 2000. The day after the PC monthly meeting in February, I met 2 men just below the ford. They had been up to take a disc out of the very large and old wild cherry (gean -Prunus avium) so people and horses could pass. They were good men with honest eyes. They said 'we have left it Mr Halpin so that 4x4s cannot get past.' That was very heartening for me.
I will write only once more to you Suzannah whilst this PC is in place, and Councillor Dewhirst. I will relate how the 4x4 vandals have destroyed or removed, or stolen everything that I have done in the exercise of my rights to protect my property, for public enjoyment and - most importantly, for the preservation of both our heritage and the natural world.
This firing, with an explosion **, of this sold on + Ford Focus (PC Radford), is the culmination of actual wickedness set in place by Dr Matthew Fox, with the support of a majority (I presume) of the then PC, and the so called Public Rights of Way Officer, Mr Rowlands.
for truth and with kind regards
David Halpin MB BS FRCS
ps I ask again re elected versus co-opted members, and what would trigger an election for a new council serving the parish in the best way. One for instance that listened to a 'conservationist' in his 81st year who had served on the same council, sometimes as chairman, and who had happily done many worthwhile things in the beautiful parish he and his wife were part of.
** parts blown out, up and down the track. See bonnet.
Dear Ms Richmond, 10.20pm 23rd June 2020
You are kind. Thank you very much. I have saved the link in my 'ArsonDroveTrack' folder, as well as your e-mail.
Some information which the local Police Constable has received I note below. He has not responded to 3 or 4 e-mails - addressed personally in 2 at least with inclusion of the Parish Council clerk, Mrs Suzanna Hughes.
I am sorry if I got the date wrong. A bit of history. It was a Tuesday when I got a call at 9.20 from the clerk to tell me a vehicle was on fire in the ancient drove track and close to a traditional linhay we completed in 1994. She was rightly concerned that it could catch fire though it does have a steel profile roof and faces away. Attached - about 1996. This sits in the middle of our wood pasture of 18 acres with a pasture of 7 acres. Ms Hilary Bond of Lustleigh has grazed a flock of White Faced Dartmoors for about 10 years on these acres. Previously I had a lovely flock of 40 Polled Dorsets. The track is on the western boundary - an ancient hedge bank forming it. I was understandably very distressed by the violence and lawlessness of it all. I soon decided to drive down from Haytor, and partly for fear of fire catching the linhay. I arrived on the knoll in the wood pasture just over the high bank, at 10.10 pm where the good fire crews (one a lady) had just finished quenching a fire. A Mr Wakefield from the Tq station was then on top of the shell.
I have cared for the track since about 1975 - before I purchased the 25 acres in 1986. No one owns this historic track; it is not on the DCC map. About 4 of the acres was grown in from the hedges. Cleared and fenced in and about. It is now very beautiful with trees up to 50ft at least and set 10 yards apart. All broad leaved and deciduous - English Oak, Walnut, Beech, Hornbeam, Sweet Chestnut, American (Red) Oak, Scots Pines and Larches at the top. A cider orchard of about 2 acres sits within - planted 1987 >.
The track, and particularly my hedge bank, was being damaged by 4x4s so to prevent that, and to afford quiet enjoyment by walkers, horse riders, mountain bikes and trail bikes I placed steel posts top and bottom in about 2000. The Haccombe with Combe Parish Council had these removed by a mini-digger in October 2012. This was lead by Dr Matthew Fox, a PC member and Dawlish GP, and a Jonathan Rowlands, the Public Rights of Way Officer. I was given a few days notice of this act. Neither Dr Fox nor Mr Rowlands had attempted to consult me. Given my ownership of the hedge bank, and our steeping of it twice since 1986, this should have happened. (Steeping not carried out for at least 12 years because trees from the neglected western bank arch over it, and often fall across my hedge bank, being old.) The Parish Council has no lien over the track because, as I say and can show, the DCC maps do not show it as being a DCC byeway.
Since 2012 the 4x4s have often used it - driving up at speed. No safe places for horses or walkers to stand aside as the roaring is heard. Often the vehicles have wide tyres and some have aggressive tread on the side walls. The damage to the hedge bank has been continuous and severe. Roots of the trees are trampled, causing likely root disease, or exposed, making tall trees more likely to fall in gales. I have exercised my right to protect my property, as well as out of respect to our forebears who made the bank - up to 9ft high in places. The posts have been removed, and presumably by the 4x4 drivers. The last, again removable with a padlock to be shared by other land owners for access, was stolen after I set it in place 23-05-20 with Richard Penellum whom I employ in the woods every Monday. This is the back ground. Distressing for a retired orthopaedic and trauma consultant in his 81st year - a man who cares deeply about almost everything. (Google david halpin - search covid or search community hospitals or search NHS 50 references/essay re the latter.)
Arson Tuesday the 2nd of June. A witness at Gulmswell Farm - at the entrance to a DCC byeway that turns sharp right below the drove track witnessed a commotion. About 3 pm I recall. A Ford Focus with 4-5 young men attached to it had come down the steep and rough byeway. It had dragged a boulder. They were pushing it over the boulder.
(The Chairman of the Parish Council, Mr Tim Boarer, had walked up the track in the afternoon and noted this vehicle in the track. I do not believe it had been obstructed on its way down. I believe he noted the registration number.)
Later he and his wife walked up the hill - via the byeway and then turned west along the Ridge Track. This leads to Teign View Cottage above the Village Hall and car park, and Westborough Farm. Just by a notice advising against use by wheeled vehicles they saw 3 young men walking up the track. One was carrying a can. One had bleached hair. Later, and I imagine in the 'dimpsy' an explosion was heard, and another reported the fire.
This is an image of the vehicle - from the track below it.
I am a well read retired surgeon with wide interests in the environment, including its conservation. I am very aware of the toxic substances that are released from vehicle fires. From the flame retarding chemicals in the foam upholstery, from the plastics, from the spray paint, battery casing etc etc. And I know that fire fighting foam has contained perfluoro-hydrocarbons that are toxic, including in the past to firefighters. Furthermore, like PCBs and furans, they do not degrade naturally.
When there is heavy rainfall a stream forms in this track and that joins the main stream, the Dod, at the foot of the valley. As it happens there are two buddles that take storm water off the track and into my wood pasture. These were long neglected until I got them working c. 1975 by placing concrete lintels obliquely to train the stream into the buddles. (The Village Hall was being rebuilt and I was chairman of the VH committee!) Early in the year I cleared them with Richard; a task taken on by volunteers via the PC, had not happened in the autumn and winter. They were completely blocked.
So with heavy rainfall some 'washings' from the firing of this vehicle would have flowed on to the wood pasture through the lower buddle. The upper one is above the wreck. Since sheep graze in the acre or so above the main gate, they might ingest potential toxic chemicals.
I therefore ask a. Is there any risk of toxicity from the Compressed Air Foam? I imagine not. b. Is there a facility in the Devon and Somerset F&R Service that would examine soil samples at the mouth of the buddle. I would supply these if instructed.
Forgive the length of this e-mail. I thought it best to paint a fuller picture. There is NO question that the Ford Focus was deliberately and viciously set on fire. I find the lack of acknowledgement by the police force to be wrong, and that no investigation has happened. Lawlessness steadily escalates given the culprits know there is no chance of prosecution. I intend to write to Ms Hernandez, the Crime Commissioner.
with thanks and in truth
David Halpin MB BS FRCS 01364 661115
Dear Mr Halpin,
Sorry I missed you when trying to telephone just now following your voicemail received yesterday.
I had difficultly locating the incident due to the address and date but found that it actually took place on 2 June. For your information, our Incident Ref No. is VV006111-02062020 and you may be interested to see that there are some details of this on the Newsdesk of our website here:
The Police were spoken to at the time in the vicinity but they did not access the actual scene – we have no record of their Log no; if there is one.
The fire was extinguished using a small amount of Compressed Air Foam through a fogging lance but there was no run off, no water courses affected and no environmental concerns raised.
If you can confirm by responding to this email that you are the owner of the land, I can send you the Incident Report for your records.
Yours sincerely,
Wendy Richmond
Information Compliance Officer
