VBB wrote:
It offers an interesting comparison. One I presume being that the tree feller fella allegedly had a notice served making him aware the tree mustn't be touched - whereas no-one but no-one serves a notice when anyone buys a house with a henge in the back garden - Avebury for example!
Existence of ancient monuments on land isn't something the land registry records, but the buyer's solicitor should be carrying out a variety of searches and enquiries before the buyer signs the contract. I guess this is covered by the local authority searches (although I don't know that for sure). To be honest though, the existence of a bloody big famous henge in your garden should be fairly apparent, even to the least diligent of buyers. Perhaps that is what should be happening - triggered by land registry or summink!
Re the amount - assessing fine-levels is a scarily complicated area of law, and you can pretty much guarantee that two judges, faced with the particular reports put to them by the two sides in respect of evidence, mitigation, etc, are never going to come to the same amount in two apparently similar cases. There isn't really a crib-sheet, as such. Perhaps there should be.