Event rider wins planning appeal

International three-day event rider, Andrew Bennie, has been celebrating an important victory – not against other riders but against his local council.

Last summer he was given a year to get rid of his mobile home at a farm near Swindonby North Wiltshire District Council.

The council stated that he was in breach of planning laws, but the farm’s owners, Angus and Nancy Ivory, appealed on Andrew’s behalf and a government inspector has now ruled in their favour.

Andrew, who is from New Zealand and a bronze-medal winner at the 1988 Olympic Games, trains and manages 20 horses on the land.

Andrew said he always believed he had a good case: “The horses at our yard are very valuable – the owners expect someone here round-the-clock to keep an eye on them.”

Andrew now has permission to stay on the site until 2004.

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