Hares Farm, South Warnborough: High Court Keeps Injunction

Update, 11 September 2026: The injunction was maintained in the High Court on Monday 7 September, according to the council’s statement, which was updated on Tuesday 8 September at 5pm. The council says it will now re-serve the confirmed order on the site and its occupants, then “set about enforcing the order and taking all appropriate actions to secure compliance”.

The defendants can still ask the court to vary the order. The council says any such request “would have to be heard in the same way”. It repeats that it is “likely” to pursue contempt of court proceedings, based on the evidence gathered since the order was first served. No judgment has been published.

Hart District Council spent the August bank holiday weekend getting a High Court injunction. It says the work it was trying to stop carried on anyway.

The land is at Hares Farm, off Pickaxe Lane in South Warnborough, about three miles south of Odiham. The council says the site “does not have planning permission for any development”.

What the council says happened

Hart has published a statement and is updating it as the case moves. Its account of the weekend runs like this:

• Friday 28 August, evening. The council is made aware that unauthorised development has started, after reports from local residents. Heavy vehicles and construction materials have entered the site.
• Saturday 29 August. Officers work through the day securing a barrister and preparing an urgent request for an injunction.
• Saturday 29 August, just after 10pm. The court’s order is provided to the council.
• Sunday 30 August, shortly after 10.30am. The order is served on the landowner and other persons.
• Across the bank holiday weekend. Council officers visit and inspect the site, and collect evidence.
• Monday 7 September. The injunction is maintained in the High Court.
• Next. The council re-serves the confirmed order, then enforces it.

The council was told on the Friday evening and had a court order served on the Sunday morning. That is a weekend’s work, on a bank holiday weekend, by a district council that does not run a weekend planning service.

What the order actually bars

The injunction is not a general stop notice. According to the council, from the moment it was served it prevented three specific things:

• bringing further materials onto the site
• bringing further mobile homes or caravans onto the site
• occupying any caravan or mobile home already on the land

The council says that over the bank holiday weekend its officers “collected evidence that work was continuing in breach of the injunction served”, and that more evidence of further works and of occupation has been gathered since. It says it has been working with legal counsel and with the police to prepare that evidence for the courts. None of that has been tested in court yet.

The council has said what it cannot do

The most striking part of Hart’s statement is defensive, and it is aimed squarely at residents asking why the site is not simply cleared.

The council says it is “following the best legal advice appropriate to this particular case”, and then adds this: “While other councils are dealing with seemingly similar situations in other ways, each case is unique and the action undertaken on other sites may not be possible in this instance.”

It also states plainly that it must follow the statutory processes that apply and “do not have the power to act outside of these legal frameworks”.

On residents taking matters into their own hands, the wording is direct. The council is leading the action, and residents “shouldn’t put themselves in any situation where harm or confrontation could arise”. Anything criminal or threatening should go to the police.

This is the second injunction over land at Hares Farm

The part of the record that gives this weight is not in the council’s statement at all. It is in a committee paper.

Hart’s Development Management Enforcement Sub-Committee papers for April 2026 carry an entry for land south of Beechcroft, Hares Farm, Pickaxe Lane, South Warnborough, registered as an enforcement case in July 2022. The council secured a High Court injunction over that land in October 2022, to prevent residential occupation of an unauthorised building in the countryside. An application to vary that injunction was defended successfully in May 2023, and the case was still open in April 2026 with the council recovering its costs.

Hart’s 4 September statement does not say whether the two matters are connected, and we are not going to assume they are. What the record does show is that the council was already four years into enforcement work at a site of that name when the vehicles arrived on 28 August.

The village has not said anything

South Warnborough Parish Council has published nothing about it. Its news page has run three items since the works began, on the Hart residents’ survey, a fallen tree on Gaston Lane and a councillor vacancy. Its July meeting was cancelled, and its own site says the next scheduled meeting is in September.

The parish is small. The council describes itself as serving “some 230+ households with a total population of circa 600 people”, in farmland next to the Greywell Fens SSSI.

What it means for you

• Nothing has been decided. An injunction is an order to stop, not a ruling on who is right. No judgment has been published.
• The order has been maintained, and contempt proceedings are the council’s stated next step. The council says that action would rest on the evidence its officers gathered after the order was first served. Contempt proceedings would be a new hearing, not a finding.
• The council will update its own page, and says it will set out what happens next as the proceedings develop. That page is the thing to watch, not social media.
• Report anything criminal or threatening to the police, not to the council. Hart has asked residents to stay away from confrontation.
• If you want to see enforcement cases in general, Hart publishes them in its Development Management Enforcement Sub-Committee papers, and the notable ones are set out case by case in an appendix.

Live applications and decisions across the district are on our Fleet planning news page.

Sources

• Hart District Council, “Unauthorised development, Hares Farm, Pickaxe Lane, South Warnborough”, page updated Tuesday 8 September 2026 at 5pm, for the whole timeline, the terms of the injunction, the evidence the council says it has gathered, the injunction being maintained in the High Court on 7 September, the re-service and variation points, the quoted passages and the advice to residents.
• Hart District Council, Appendix 2, update on notable cases, Development Management Enforcement Sub-Committee, April 2026, for the separate enforcement case at land south of Beechcroft, Hares Farm, registered July 2022, the October 2022 injunction, the successfully defended variation application in May 2023 and the ongoing costs recovery.
• South Warnborough Parish Council and its news page for the parish’s size and setting, the items it has published since 28 August, and its meeting schedule.

We name no individuals in this report. Nothing here has been tested in court, and an injunction is not a finding against anyone. First published 8 September 2026; updated 11 September 2026 with the outcome of the 7 September hearing. We will update it again if contempt proceedings are brought.