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Fresh plans for homes at Tony Martin's former farm

Owen SennittNorfolk
BBC Tony Martin wearing a beret and coat, clutching a folder and a newspaper. He is standing outside a property covered in ivy.BBC
The Norfolk farmer Tony Martin died in February last year

Fresh plans have been lodged for homes at the farm that once belonged to Tony Martin, who shot dead a teenage burglar at his home in 1999.

It is the second attempt to convert barns at Cow Croft Field Farm in Emneth Hungate in Norfolk, close to the Cambridgeshire border.

The site is home to Bleak House which hit national headlines 27 years ago when Martin shot two burglars, killing one of them.

After his death last year, the 80-year-old left part of his estate that totalled more than £2.5m to friend and former pub landlady Jacqueline Wadsley and her husband David.

The application lodged with King's Lynn and West Norfolk Council seeks to change the use of two barns to provide four homes.

Swann Edwards Architecture, the agent for the couple, said the homes would be part of a "wider complex" of residential accommodation, also including Bleak House.

It claims the development would not cause an increase in traffic to the site compared with the current level generated through farming.

Swann Edwards Architects An architect's drawing submitted as part of a planning application, showing what the agricultural barns could look like if turned into homes, displaying windows and doorways.Swann Edwards Architects
A drawing of what the barns could look like if turned into homes

A previous application for the site was withdrawn following council officer objections that no ecological survey had been carried out.

It sought to convert five barns into 10 homes.

A survey has now been conducted as part of the application, which found there were no significant risks to wildlife and made recommendations for mitigation measures.

Two police vans, police car and a police mobile stand in front of a sprawling modern barn, with police officers walking to a gate, and members of the media with TV cameras close by. Towering trees surround the site.
The farm, pictured in 1999, is near Outwell and Wisbech close to the Norfolk-Cambridgeshire border

Bleak House was where Martin fatally shot 16-year-old Fred Barras in August 1999.

Barras had travelled with accomplice Brendon Fearon, from Newark in Nottinghamshire, to raid the property where Martin stored antiques.

Barras died at the farm while Fearon was treated in hospital for his injuries.

Martin was convicted of murder and jailed for life, but the charge was later downgraded to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility and he was released in 2003.

Representatives of Jacqueline and David Wadsley, who inherited Martin's estate, have been contacted for comment.

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