A horse owner who built stables in the South Downs National Park has been ordered to pay more than £12,000 in fines and told to return the site to its original condition.

Jane Soul, 65, from Eastleigh, built a stable, plumbed in a caravan and even placed a shipping container in the rural area of Privett at the South Downs National Park.

Appearing at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court on September 4, Soul was found guilty of breaching three enforcement notices –that all required her to demolish the site.

East Hampshire District Councillor Angela Glass said: “We are going to be tough on people who breach our planning rules.

“We have reinforced our planning enforcement team to protect the rural areas and countryside of East Hampshire from harmful development.

“This has been a long-running case but our enforcement teams don’t give up lightly. I am very pleased we have managed to bring this case to court, and the council has successfully prosecuted the offenders.”

Soul was originally served with an enforcement notice ordering her to remove stables and stop keeping horses on land back in 2013.

She initially complied with those notices, but between 2016 and 2020 she started to redevelop the site with new, larger stables and new hard surfacing.

The horse-owner then purchased further land to the south of the site and placed a residential style caravan and shipping container with a catchment tank.

The caravan was fitted with mains water connection, drainage, and had gas connected for heat and cooking.

As a result, planning enforcement officers, working on behalf of the South Downs National Park Authority, issued a further order in 2021, ordering her to remove the development.

The judge at Soul's trial said her actions showed a deliberate failure to comply with the planning authority and that the requirements of the notices were “crystal clear.”