the times | Monday April 4 2022 5
News
The Earl of Cardigan is embroiled in a
dispute with Forestry England over its
plans to block access to a forest his
family has owned for “nine centuries”.
The agency proposes stopping cars
from entering Savernake Forest in
Wiltshire, the only ancient woodland in
Britain still in private hands, so work
can begin to build a café, play area and
car park with 350 spaces.
Under the scheme, people could be
forced to stay on specified trails rather
than wandering through the woods.
The management plan suggests that
Earl goes out on a limb to defend family’s ancient woodland
lives in a lodge on the ancestral Saver-
nake Estate, said the document was
posted “with zero prior warning to me”.
He said in a statement on Friday that he
would “firmly” oppose the plan.
The earl said: “For hundreds of years
the forest has been open to the public
and many thousands of local people use
it for recreation.
“They say they wish to shut the entire
4,500-acre forest to all the cars that
currently bring visitors here and corral-
ling them all into a pay car park that the
Forestry Commission would own.
“They wish to shut off Capability
Brown’s Grand Avenue, which at4.2 miles long, dead straight, stands in
the Guinness book of records as the
longest in Britain”.
The earl said that the plan would lead
to a “mass ban” on families.
Under the proposal, Postern Hill will
be developed into a visitor hub, with a
car park, lavatories, play area and café.
The redevelopment will be coupled
with the closure of the Grand Avenue
and the rest of the forest to cars.
“The trail network would be routed
to stay out of the quiet areas,” the
scheme says.
Since 1987, earl has been the 31st he-
reditary warden of Savernake Forest,which was handed to his ancestors by
William the Conqueror in 1067. He is a
descendant of the Seymour family.
A Forestry England spokeswoman
said that the plan was “an internal dis-
cussion document”. She added that the
plan was not an agreement.
It addresses the “damage of ever-
increasing numbers of visitors — the
vast majority of whom arrive by car”.
She said: “There is no intention to
stop visitors or even curtail the increas-
ing numbers of visitors to the forest.
Our aim is to better manage how visi-
tors enjoy the forest.” The plan is open
for public comment until tomorrow.Kieran Gair the public could also be restricted from
visiting other areas.
The Forestry England paper, titled
Savernake Forest, A Way Forward, says
that free roaming is harming the ecolo-
gy and “aesthetic values” of the thou-
sand-year-old woodland.
The forest is privately owned by the
earl, also known as David Brudenell-
Bruce, 69, and his son Viscount Saver-
nake. It is administered by trustees.
Since 1939, the timber has been man-
aged by the executive agency on a 999-
year lease. The area’s private status is
maintained by shutting the forest to the
public for a day each year. The earl, who
The Duke of York is said to have left
aides blindsided by an account of his
experience in the Falklands War shared
on his former wife’s Instagram page.
Andrew, 62, who flew missions as a
Sea King helicopter pilot during the
conflict, described returning from the
Falklands “a changed man” in a 700-
word statement shared by Sarah,
Duchess of York, on Saturday.
Buckingham Palace and Andrew’s
team was unaware he had published the
account, which was uploaded over
three posts and deleted two hours later.
The musings had been signed off as
“written by HRH The Duke of York”,
despite Buckingham Palace saying in
January that he would no longer be
styled as His Royal Highness. Andrew
lost his royal patronages and militaryaffiliations at the same time as the fall-
out from the civil sex case he was fight-
ing in the US. He has since settled out of
court with his accuser, Virginia Roberts
Guiffre, for a reported £7 million. He
has always denied any wrongdoing.
The “HRH” reference was removed
before the posts were deleted. The ac-
count had started with the Duchess, 62,
explaining that she had “asked Andrew
for his reflections” to mark 40 years
since the start of the war.
In the posts, Andrew, whom she still
lives with, recalled: “I was flying and
saw a chaff shell fired from one of our
ships that passed not that far in front of
us.” He famously drew on his combat
experience when he gave a disastrous
Newsnight interview in which he dis-
puted his accuser’s claim that he had
been sweating heavily on a night out,
explaining that combat experience had
left him unable to perspire.
Last Tuesday there was speculation
over a possible rehabilitation after he
supported the Queen at a service to
rember the Duke of Edinburgh, his first
public appearance since the settlement.
A Palace source told The Sunday Times
the duke is “delusional if he thinks what
happened on Tuesday means he has
any chance of resuming a public role”.
Buckingham Palace declined to com-
ment on the posts, as did representa-
tives for the Duke and the Duchess.The Duke of York
flew helicopter
missions in the
Falklands in 1982Selman Turk in front of
Tarek Kaituni at a party
in February 2020
A convicted Libyan gun smuggler
introduced the Duke of York to an
alleged fraudster who paid him more
than £1 million, it has been claimed.
Tarek Kaituni, 54, has boasted of his
relationship with Andrew, 62, and bro-
kered meetings between him and the
Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi.
He is alleged to have set up the initial
meetings between the prince and
Selman Turk, a former banker being
taken to court by Nebahat Evyap Isbi-
len, a Turkish millionaire, over claims
that he cost her about
£39.37 million while
acting as her financial
adviser. As part of the
case, Isbilen, who is in
her seventies, alleges
that she paid £750,
to Andrew on the orders
of Turk, who told her
bank the money was “a
wedding gift to Princess
Beatrice”. Isbilen has
claimed that she author-
ised the payment, which
Duke’s aides
bemused by
Falklands
statement
Charlotte WaceThe Duke of York, third from left in a silver suit, with Tarek Kaituni, circled, in August 2009 at a party in Marbella to celebrate Princess Beatrice’s 21st birthday
Andrew, a Turkish ‘fraudster’
and the Libyan gun runner
the duke has since repaid, because she
thought it was a “gift” in return for help
to get a new passport.
Kaituni introduced Andrew to Turk
at a Windsor Castle birthday party in
May or June 2019, The Sunday Tele-
graph reported yesterday.
The newspaper said the men held at
least two meetings in London, includ-
ing a dinner with potential investors
held for the prince at Turk’s apartment
in December 2019.
It was reported that Kaituni also
attended a birthday party for Sarah,
Duchess of York, Andrew’s former wife,
which Turk is alleged
to have helped to fund.
The prince first be-
came involved with
Kaituni in 2005, the
year the Libyan was
convicted of attempt-
ing to smuggle a sub-
machinegun to
France from the
Netherlands.
Kaituni was among
guests at the wedding
of Andrew’s daughter,
Princess Eugenie, at
Windsor Castle in- All four mem-
bers of the York
Charlotte Wace, Mario Ledwith
w t c K y cin
m F N g o P W 2 bfamily have been named on court docu-
ments linked to the High Court case.
Andrew has received more than
£1 million in payments facilitated by
Turk and companies linked to him. His
former wife, 62, has received £250,000.
An additional £25,000 went to Eugenie,
32.
In statements given to the court,
Isbilen alleges to have seen an email
from Turk to her bank falsely claiming
that the £750,000 “was a wedding gift to
Princess Beatrice owing to the close
connection between our families”.
Amanda Thirsk, the duke’s former
private secretary, was said to have told
bankers questioning the payment that
it was a “wedding gift”. There is no
suggestion of wrongdoing by Andrew,
Sarah or their daughters.
It was reported that Beatrice, 33, has
told friends that she had no idea anyone
outside her family had sought to con-
tribute to the cost of her wedding to
Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in July 2020.
A friend told The Mail on Sunday:
“She knew nothing about this.”
Representatives for Andrew have de-
clined to comment, and a spokesman
for Sarah has said that she “was com-
pletely unaware of the allegations that
have since emerged against Mr Turk.
She is naturally concerned by what hasbeen alleged against him.” It is under-
stood that she believed she was being
paid money owed by Pegasus Group
Holdings, an energy company of which
she is an ambassador. Buckingham
Palace has declined to comment.
Turk, who could not be reached for
comment, is understood to deny the
allegations against him. His digital
banking company, Heyman AI, won an
award at the prince’s Pitch@Palace
event days before the £750,000 pay-
ment was made. In court documents,
Isbilen stated her belief that the trans-
action was linked to Turk’s appearance
at the entrepreneurs’ event.
Heyman AI went bust about a year
and a half later. At least eight former
employees began tribunal proceedings
over unpaid wages or other contract
breaches. Turk previously spent five
years working for Goldman Sachs,
leaving in 2016.
The complex legal case between Isbi-
len and Turk continues. Isbilen, whose
husband is a political prisoner, claimed
that she sought Turk’s help when she
wanted to flee Turkey. Her lawyers say
Turk abused her trust and that she is
“the victim of serious fraud and finan-
cial wrongdoing”.
Prince must not play any further role
in public life, leading article, page 27