“Some commentators seem to have missed the fact that the houses were built unlawfully. Giving them to anyone else doesn't make them disappear. There's no point in having restrictive covenants if they can be ignored. This was, indeed, a waste, but allowing the houses to remain would have set a precedent.”

“Still there will be a nice plot of brownfield for some travelling folk to have their Christmas hols on now wont there...oh and their Easter/Whitsun/Summer/Autumn hols.

Mind you its in Whaddo...sorry Prestbury so it wont be long before the criminal elements move in and burn a couple of stolen cars on it.

Less seriously, I am surprised that TW didn't have the legal wherewithal to have this covenant removed; presumably they weren't that bothered because they knew they'd never sell them in the current climate and bearing in mind their location.”

“TW knew there was a restrictive covenant on the land from the outset.
The first thing that any Micky Mouse developer will do is to check what restrictive covenants there are on a property/land either by checking the deeds themselves or ordering their solicitors to do so. Of course TW knew, they just thought that if they went ahead they would get away with it. The previous owner was unlikely to complain (didn't he do well) so it was a calculated judgement by TW that no one else would find out about it and take action.”

“planning rules are interrupted in many ways to suit local priorities - yes this was a breach of the covenant/planning regulations - the local people could have decided finishing the homes and transfer to a low cost parish housing cooperative would have safeguarded valuable asset for the community - the builder could have been persuaded by some incentives so he was also not completely in the red. That is what localism is all about - not just black and white wording on paper.”

“The people that sold them the land for £11.5m must have been laughing all the way to the bank and I guess those responsible for buying it would have lost their jobs.”

“Bonkim, There is a chronic shortage of grazing land in the area. Having it returned to this would be no bad thing.”

“"It made a terrible noise with blocks of concrete being churned up.
"The whole operation caused a major disturbance throughout."

Some people are never happy........”

“Bonkim2003 - they weren't finished, and therefore weren't habitable. So who would have paid to finish them off? And they would still have been built on protected land, in breach of a legally-binding covenant.

This should never have got this far. The fact that the covenant existed was ignored when the PP was granted (yes I know that covenants are not a planning consideration - perhaps they should be?), and the moment Taylor Wimpey started work on the protected piece of land they should have been stopped. I don't quite understand why they were "allowed" to get as far as they did before they were finally made to down tools.

TW knew from the outset that the land was protected, but carried on regardless. Good to see that the little people still can have a say over the big boys. This will have cost TW a lot of money, and it is mostly all their own doing, although if the existence of the covenant had been taken into account at the planning stage, the whole sorry mess would never have happened.

Maybe those wanting to protect Green Belt land from future development should take note - establish covenants on the land, and then make sure that the Planners (and the prospective developers) know all about them, and also cite the above as a precedent case. Except of course the land-owners won't want to do it, as they would kill their future mega-bucks land sales.....”

“This is outrageous, and a complete over reaction. Yes, I'm sure planning rules have been broken, but hey, here's an idea. Why couldn't these houses have been save, and some other plots been handed over for recreaional purposes?
We're told there is a national shortage of homes, so now twenty four families are no further forward.
When all the jobsworths lean back in their office chairs, and see companies closed down for red tape and 'elf 'n' safety reasons, and people are made redundant, including themselves, they can say 'I really did a good job there, didn't I' - pi||0cks!!”

“What a waste? The builder could have given the homes ant no cost to the local council for social housing”