Eco-farmer faces jail in land dispute with neighbour over grazing cows

Published on Monday 13 July 2009 22:00

AN eco-farmer could face jail for using her own land after a neighbour was given rights to graze his cattle in her fields.

For the past four years, Maryse Anand has been trying to take legal action to remove neighbouring farmer Iain Grindlay's cattle from her land.

However, in a bizarre twist, Mr Grindlay has claimed rights over the fields and she has been banned from using them.

Eight years ago, Mrs Anand bought her 140-acre farm on the banks of Loch Tay to create an eco-village where people could come from all over the world and live off the land.

While she was setting up the eco-village, she gave Mr Grindlay permission to use her land to graze his cattle, on what she intended to be a temporary basis, to be a "good neighbour".

Ultimately, she did not want any cows on her eco-farm, partly because they produce large quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

However, when she asked him to remove the animals four years ago, he refused, making use of agricultural laws that, unknown to her, gave him rights over her land.

Mr Grindlay has even successfully lodged an interim interdict against Mrs Anand, banning her from using her own land in Fearnan, Perthshire – to enable his cattle to roam free.

The order bans her from interfering with Mr Grindlay's "quiet use" of the land, by "blocking, restricting or reducing access", "locking gates", "sabotaging animal husbandry infrastructures" or even "entering into the fields and sowing crops".

She has been accused of breaching the interdict, and if found guilty at a court hearing tomorrow, could face jail.

Mrs Anand, originally from The Netherlands, who calls herself the Reverend Mother, bought the land for 350,000 eight years ago, and said she had already spent another 20,000 on legal action to try to remove the cattle.

She described Mr Grindlay as a "neighbour from hell".

She said: "The cattle are even in my kitchen garden. They are everywhere, tramping over everything.

"I can't use one inch of my land for my own use."

She added it was against her "ethos" to have cows grazing..

However, Mr Grindlay told The Scotsman he planned to leave his cattle on her land.

He said he had carried out a considerable amount of maintenance work in lieu of rent.

He felt Mrs Anand had "taken advantage" by expecting him to leave when she required, and he said she had removed fences and blocked an access point over a burn to try to keep him out.

"If she had been a bit more reasonable a few years back, it would never have got to this bizarre situation," he said.

James Morris, Mrs Anand's solicitor, said it was a lesson in making sure legal documentation was always drawn up – which had not been done in this case.

He said in agricultural law, unlike in property law, it can be the owner's responsibility to prove a tenant has not been given rights over the land.

"Mr Grindlay claims that both of them agreed that he would have an agricultural tenancy over the entire farm, something which Mrs Anand vigorously disputes," he said.

An agricultural tenancy entitles the holder to effectively step into the shoes of the owner, Mr Morris said.

"The tenant pretty much has carte blanche to run things as he sees fit," he added.

Mr Grindlay agreed it was probably never "intended" that he had an agricultural tenancy, but that it had happened because of "agricultural law".