Vow to fight on after residents are given two weeks to leave Thorpe island
Defiant to the end, Roger Wood, owner of Jenners Basin on Thorpe Island says he will continue to fight planning decisions against him.Picture by SIMON FINLAY. - Credit: Archant Norfolk
A local authority has thrown out the possibility of halting enforcement action against people living on an island in the Broads.
Thorpe Island residents have been given just two weeks to move out of Jenner's Basin or face eviction by the Broads Authority.
It comes just days after both parties met to try to resolve numerous issues associated with the land in Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich.
The authority's chief executive told islanders that enforcement action could be suspended for six months to allow them to submit a new planning application.
But in a second meeting this week the authority made it clear this was no longer an option.
Islander Gary Barnes, 49, said: 'We came away from that first meeting very positive, thinking that we could do business with the Broads Authority. I was very keen to give them a chance.
'But they have back-tracked on everything.
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'We wanted to work with the authority to find a long-term solution, but it seems they don't want to.
'That leaves us with only one option, and that is to fight.'
The area of land has been at the centre of a long-running legal wrangle between landowner Roger Wood and the authority over historic planning rights.
His case has already been before two planning inspectors, with a High Court judge deeming the development unlawful and the Court of the Appeal refusing permission to appeal that decision on two occasions.
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