RULED BY THE DEAD HAND

Hawera Star, Volume L, 21 February 1931, Page 9

RULED BY THE DEAD HAND

in England is virtually ruled by the dead hand of a duke. While others struggle to achieve town-planning by complicated legislation ,the Sussex resort can sit back and be grateful for the foresight shown by the late Duke of Devonshire (uncle of the present duke). Attention was called to the borough’s curious position by the decision of a Chancery Court judge who granted the Chatsworth Estates Company an injunction to restrain a house-owner from using his premises as a boarding-house. The former Duke of Devonshire, who owned two-thirds of the land on which the town now stands, planned Eastbourne as it is to-day almost before a score of houses were in existence. Whenever he sold land he placed restrictive covenants in the title.

Duke Who Planned for Eternity

This land has in many cases changed hand's- many' times since, but the restrictions are perpetual, and the Chatsworth Estates Company, which controls estates which were ceded to, the Marquess of Hartington by. the present Duke of Devonshire, his father, still controls the town.

Licenses have been granted amending the covenants, but always with the welfare of the town in mind.

Even the corporation has had to bow to the veto of the company over schemes on the front and provision of working-class houses.

Many people, not understanding the basis of Eastbourne’s prosperity', would like to break the company’s monopoly,” but informed public opinion favours the "dictatorship.”