Golf champ locked in bitter 7-year court battle with neighbours who she wants to boot off her land worth millions
A GOLF champ has been locked in a bitter seven-year court battle to try and boot her neighbours off her incredibly valuable land.
Vivien Saunders OBE, who won the Women’s British Open in 1977, has been battling upmarket tenants on the land she owns, next to her home, for years on end after first raising concerns over water bills.
Back in 2018, she highlighted the bills paid by the occupants of her luxury lodges on the land she owns, and eventually accused them of illegally tapping into her water supply.
Since this flashpoint, they have faced a barrage of accusations that they have breached conditions from their 125-year lease, while 78-year-old Saunders has been convicted of common assault.
One of the residents told the Daily Mail that the landowner was only fighting the million-pound legal battle as she would benefit from kicking them off the land.
They claimed she would gain millions if the tenants were found to contravene the conditions of their lease – as she wants to develop the site.
Saunders firmly denies these claims, describing them as “complete and utter nonsense”, saying the focus was on the water pipes.
The former golf champ owns 20 log chalets, worth around £250,000 each, on the site at Abbotsley Country Homes in St Neots, Cambridgeshire.
It lies next door to the disused 200-acre Abbotsley Golf Course, which Saunders owns and hopes to convert into a residential estate.
The former golfer herself lives next to the site in Eynesbury Manor.
Saunders, who had purchased the land in three tranches between 1986 and 1991, became a qualified solicitor 43 years ago and has been a member of Mensa for half a century.
In legal submissions to the High Court, sitting in Cambridge County Court, Saunders and her company, Abbotsley Ltd, claimed the defendants had trespassed her land in order to tap into the water supply.
They argue that the issue dates back to when the water pipe was hooked up to her supply without her knowledge, instead of it being connected to the mains when the lodges were built.
Initially just a slight disagreement, the arguments spiralled into shocking claims the lodge owners were breaching specific rules.
These were that they could only live in the homes for 11 months of the year, and that they must own a primary residence elsewhere.
There have also been allegations that one lodge was being used for “commercial purposes”, that some had large sheds, and that machinery was being used to drill a borehole.
A High Court judge previously dismissed calls for the chalet owners to give up their lease, in order for the land to be repossessed, in light of the allegations.
This was upheld at a later appeal, which was the most recent hearing on the issues.
Saunders had been convicted of common assault two years ago after she drove her Mercedes 4×4 into lodge owner Jill Beresford-Ambridge, who was using crutches at the time.
The golfer tried to appeal this conviction in October last year but was unsuccessful.
Magistrates at the trial in Peterborough, and retrial in Cambridge, heard how she nudged the lodge owner with her vehicle after driving to the site.
Sporting legend Saunders was made an OBE in the 1998 New Years Honours for services to women’s golf.
She later stood to be an MP in Witney against then Prime Minister David Cameron in the 2015 general election.
Her barrister Kerry Bretherton KC said the water dispute was one of many issues in the case, adding there had been “very serious anti-social behaviour” against Saunders.
The residents, however, say they had a verbal agreement for water to be supplied, adding it would be charged according to meter readings.
They also claim to have invoices showing how they were billed for water between 2011 and 2017, but that problems began in 2018 when they received a huge bill.
The residents also argue that Saunders began charging them a ten per cent “management fee”.
The case continues.