Bloody Nose For Bellway

[exiges]

Apologies if this is a repost:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1227283/Beautician-turns-barrister-win-David-Goliath-High-Court-battle-construction-giant.html

Look what Bellway did to their garden

Georgina Blackwell makes an unlikely candidate to stand up in front of a judge and take on seasoned lawyers in the High Court.

As she herself points out, she's a young, blonde beautician from Essex.

But when her mother's home and business were put at risk in an access dispute with one of the country's biggest homebuilders, the 23-year-old decided she had to fight back.

The court battle revolved around a Grade II listed former school her mother had bought in Halstead, Essex.

Ranged against her was Bellway Homes, one of the country's biggest developers. It wanted to convert land it had bought next door into luxury homes.

But Miss Blackwell emerged triumphant from her confrontation with the developers' legal team.

Not only did she manage to overturn a previous High Court judgment, she also won her mother £75,000 compensation.

'I'm a blonde, 23-year-old beautician from Essex,' she said. 'I know it doesn't look good on paper, but I think they underestimated me.

'I felt scared stiff by the huge courtroom and speaking in front of a High Court judge but I got a surge of adrenaline and thought "They aren't going to intimidate me".

'I opened the case, gave evidence, and cross-examined their solicitor. When the judgment was read out it was fantastic. I wanted to jump up and down.

'Bellway's legal team sat there with no expressions, heads down. The barrister came over and congratulated me. He said I had put up a good fight.

My mum was going to lose her business and her home and that gave me the courage to stand up and be counted.'

Her mother Sandra, 52, bought the 600-year-old former school in 2003 to open a salon called The House of Beauty.

Bellway later bought an empty factory which backs on to the garden to build 43 homes.

It believed it had a right of access to cross Mrs Blackwell's small garden, which it needed to demolish two of the factory walls. When she refused access, Bellway took her to court.

She lost the case in July and was ordered to pay Bellway's legal costs of £22,000 and a 'five-figure' sum in damages. The firm put scaffolding in the garden and began demolition.

Miss Blackwell - who was offered a place to study law at Kingston University in South-West London when she was 17 but started working in the salon when her mother broke her wrist - said: 'Our garden has three walls. One of them divides us from a neighbour and the other two are where they built the factory.

'Never in a million years did we think we would be put in a position where someone would demand access, fill the garden with scaffolding, destroy the plants, cover the house with dust, and disrupt our business.'

Edited February 4, 2011 by exiges