Village anger after buy-to-let gurus sell one-acre plot to travellers
A month ago, Fergus and Judith Wilson raised eyebrows by putting their entire portfolio of 700 houses up for sale in the middle of a property slump.
Now, the former maths teachers dubbed the 'king and queen of buy-to-let' stand accused of an even more desperate measure to raise cash: selling strips of land to travellers.
The one-acre plot in Boughton Monchelsea, Kent, sold at auction in July for £30,000.
Immobile home: Judith and Fergus Wilson sold a one-acre plot in Broughton Monchelsea to travellers, much to the disdain of village locals
On August bank holiday, villagers were dismayed to see a family of travellers arrive, cover the ground with road chippings and tow a mobile home on to the site.
The family, who say they have come from Dartford, have certainly made themselves at home. A sign saying 'The Fairway' has been attached to a locked gate. A generator purrs outside the mobile home and a water supply appears to be connected.
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A woman who declines to give her name says she, her husband and children are planning to stay. ' Everyone's got a right to live wherever they like, haven't they?' she adds.
Last week, the Wilsons sold another strip of land, this time for £20,000. A Clive Emson 'Sold' board unusually, for an estate agent, invites interested parties to ring a revenue-earning premium-rate number - 'calls cost no more than 60p a minute'. There is no sign yet of a traveller encampment on this strip.
Marice Kendrick, who owns Boughton Monchelsea Place, the handsome stately home that lies across the road from the encampment, says: 'It has caused a huge amount of ill-feeling in the village. It is always regrettable when travellers occupy land.'
Buy-to-let gurus: Judith and Fergus Wilson are selling off 700 properties
Other villagers accuse the Wilsons of selling off the land, knowing it would end up as a traveller encampment, to spite them for opposing attempts by the Wilsons to develop the land as a retirement home.
It is a charge denied by Fergus Wilson. 'I didn't know who had bought the land and I wasn't even at the auction. It is unlawful to discriminate against people, be they black, Chinese or travellers.'
He says, however, that he sold a piece of land in the nearby village of Chart Sutton to travellers five years ago and 'it did occur to me that travellers would buy the land at Boughton Monchelsea, too'.
He adds: 'Frankly, I am surprised that nobody else in the village anticipated that. People are regretting now that they don't have a retirement village on the site, but it's too late, isn't it?'
Mr Wilson also denies he is desperate for cash to keep his property empire afloat. He claims to have three buyers 'cutting each other's throats' to buy the couple's portfolio.
Local estate agents, however, are sceptical. Ian Fowler, of Savills in Sevenoaks, suggests that institutional investors interested in 700 houses in Kent will demand a discount of at least 20 to 30 per cent.
The plots that have already been sold by the Wilsons, both in their 60s, are part of a much larger, L-shaped plot they own adjoining Boughton Monchelsea village school.
In 1993, they applied for permission to build a nursing home there, but Maidstone Borough Council rejected the plan on the grounds that it would constitute 'an intrusive form of development in the open countryside detrimental to the visual amenity and character of the surrounding area'.
The Wilsons then sought permission for a 'green human cemetery' --a burial site set amid trees. That, too, sparked protests from locals.
Four years ago, they tried to build a retirement village consisting of bungalows, a community centre, a nursing home, a surgery and a shop.
Local anger: The Kent village of Boughton Monchelsea
At a heated meeting in March 2005, the parish council objected unanimously to the application, complaining that it would lead to excessive traffic, damage a Bronze Age fort on the site, threaten the existing village shop and destroy bluebells.
The scheme was again rejected. Maidstone Council is now threatening to remove the mobile home from the site, something that might deter other travellers buying strips of land from the Wilsons.
A spokesman says: ' We have received several complaints about unauthorised development at Boughton Monchelsea and are investigating in order to consider possible enforcement action.'
