which it fears could destroy precious woodland reserve.

The Trust is objecting to the construction of a road through the Chaplin Estate on Harbour Road in Warwick -- and in an effort to hold back the plans have obtained an injunction to prohibit the developers from proceeding before the appeal has been resolved.

The Development Applications Board (DAB) turned down an application by Gerry Wilmot in 1998 after the Trust said the proposed 3.66-metre-wide road running parallel to the Tribe Road, leading to the proposed building lot, would have required "significant excavation'' and tree removal from within an area designated woodland reserve.

In July 2000, an appeal to then-Environment Minister, Arthur Hodgson, resulted in the DAB being overruled, and permission was granted to build the road.

The land is not only zoned woodland reserve but is also protected from development by a Section 34 agreement. A Section 34 agreement is where a property owner makes an agreement with the Environment Minister not to develop a specified area of land in order to obtain development rights for another area.

In the case of Chaplin Estate, the owner made an agreement to indefinitely preserve an area of woodland reserve adjacent to Harbour Road in exchange for permission to subdivide the parcel of land into two separate lots.

In 1993 the DAB gave approval for two new houses with pools on the site, providing that no development was to be carried out that would conflict with the Section 34 agreement, and improvements to the existing access road from Middle Road should be completed. In 1997, the first of four applications to develop a second access road over the woodland reserve area were submitted and refused by the DAB, but despite the DAB's refusal, advice from the Government's conservation officers, and the independent planning inspectors findings, Mr. Hodgson allowed the development to go ahead.

Alan Dunch and Juliana Jack of Mello, Jones and Martin are acting for the Trust on the appeal.

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