Daily Mail, Thursday, March 5, 2020^ Page 27
When
Will i
sue you
again?
Three Degrees diva fights
developer over threat to
her musical memorabilia
famous Michelin-starred The Fat
Duck gastropub.
And by the end of last month, his
workmen had begun excavating
immediately next to and behind
the walls of the garages, digging to
a level below their foundations.
Nicholas Isaac QC told a hearing
at Central London County Court
the demolition work is ‘clearly
threatening the structural integ-
rity’ of Miss Ferguson’s garages. Headded: ‘She is a former member of
The Three Degrees and stores
albums and memorabilia there.’
The building project, the barris-
ter said, has left the garages
‘exposed to the elements or inad-
equately protected’. In addition, a
fence has been erected and build-
ing materials piled up, stopping
the ex-couple from being able toget to their property. They also
claim that work on the site started
in November without a valid party
wall agreement in place – a legal
document which sets out the
respective rights and responsibili-
ties of a property owner during
building works and those of the
owners of adjacent buildings.
The ex-couple have applied for acourt order which would see the
work stopped until they have
agreed exactly what it will entail.
Mr Isaac claimed that Mr Naylor- who was not in court or repre-
sented by lawyers – had shown a
‘wholesale disregard’ for his obli-
gations under the Party Wall Act.
The QC asked for a court order to
halt the work until the neighbours
have settled their disagreements
and to prevent Mr Naylor or his
contractors from obstructing
access to the garages. He said it
was ‘difficult to reach any conclu-
sion other than Mr Naylor has
cynically decided to ignore his
obligations under the act simply
because he considers it is more
convenient, and presumably prof-
itable, for him to act in that way’.
Judge Nicholas Parfitt ordered
that Mr Naylor allows access by
the former couple’s surveyor into
the garages to evaluate the risks
to their property. He adjourned a
hearing on the application for a
full injunction until a later date.THREE Degrees singer Sheila
Ferguson is battling a property
development she claims threat-
ens to destroy her priceless col-
lection of musical memorabilia.
The Seventies soul diva, who
famously danced on stage with Prince
Charles after performing at his 30th
birthday party, stores decades worth
of mementoes from her career in
garages near her former home on the
banks of the Thames.
However a multi-million-pound rede-
velopment project on the adjoining prop-
erty has blocked the garages and may
cause them to collapse, according to the
singer and her ex-husband, businessman
Christopher Robinson.
They have joined forces again to battle
developer Gordon Naylor after he started
demolishing the £1.4million house behind
the garages, as well as digging out land
around them, to build a luxury four-bed-
room riverside home.
Philadelphia-born Miss Ferguson, 72,
was a member of The Three Degrees
from 1966 to 1986, singing lead vocals on
some of their best-known songs, includ-
ing their 1974 number one hit When Will
I See You Again?
She was one of Prince Charles’s favour-
ite singers and the girl group performed
at his request at his 30th birthday party‘Didn’t want to be a notch
on Charles’s bedpost’Thieves target charity shops as police ‘ignore’ crime
Soul sister:
Singer Miss
Ferguson is
still belting
out hits from
her Three
Degrees daysCharles’s angels: The Three Degrees, with Sheila Ferguson circled, on stage with the prince in 1978
At risk: Garages where Miss Ferguson stores her collection
By James Tozer
CHARITY shops are facing a ‘painful’ epi-
demic of theft as police turn their backs
on retail crime, a report warns today.
Figures show losses from criminal activ-
ity across the retail sector topped £1bil-
lion for the first time last year, and even
charity shops run by volunteers are con-
sidered fair game by thieves. The BritishRetail Consortium (BRC) said 424 cases of
violent or abusive behaviour against shop
workers were reported each day in the
year to April, up 9 per cent on the previ-
ous 12 months. But seven out of ten retail-ers said the police response to crime was
poor or very poor.
Robin Osterley, chief of the Charity Retail
Association, said: ‘The fact people are vol-
unteering in these circumstances can be
incredibly destructive for their morale.’
The report noted a trend for thefts of
small amounts, with the perception thatpolice will not attend if the stolen goods
are worth less than £200. Clothes were
the main items taken from charity shops,
along with bric-a-brac and vinyl records.
BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson
called for a stronger police response to
retail crime and legislation for tougher
sentences for those who assault staff.By David Barrett
Home Affairs Correspondentin 1978, when he danced with her on
stage. She recently said in a TV interview
that she exchanged letters with Charles,
but denied rumours they were romanti-
cally involved, adding that she ‘didn’t want
to be a notch on his bedpost’.
The singer later pursued a solo career
and married property developer Mr Rob-
inson in 1980, settling in Bray, Berkshire,
and having two daughters, before they
divorced in 2004. She remains a familiar
figure on television screens in her
adopted country, appearing on Loose
Women and reality shows I’m A Celebrity
and The Real Marigold Hotel.
According to court documents, Mr Nay-
lor has planning permission to redevelop
the site, including putting up a brand
new house in the affluent private road in
Bray, home to Heston Blumenthal’sv1