A COLLECTOR whose scrap cars didn’t sell at a recent auction, has been told to get rid of the rusty vehicles littering the countryside by Herefordshire Council’s enforcement team.

Said to be Britain’s biggest-ever barn-find car collection, some 200 vehicles went under the hammer at Doward Farm last June.

The collection of vehicles belonged to Mark Dew, who started his car collecting hobby 40 years ago with the original intention on setting up a motor museum.

And over the four decades he managed to fill up a barn and several fields with an assortment of vehicles.

But many of these vehicles didn’t sell at the auction and remain in situ on the land.

However, Mr Dew was sent an enforcement notice in December stating ‘The siting and storage of old/scrap cars, vans and non-agricultural vehicles at the farm, constituted “a material change of use”, from farmland to mixed use, without planning permission.

Mr Dew was told that a retrospective bid for planning permission would not receive officer support, given the sensitive location of the farm in the Wye Valley National Landscape.

The enforcement notice gave Mr Dew 30 days from January 19 to “permanently remove the old/scrap cars, vans and non-agricultural vehicles from the land”, unless he were to first lodge an appeal against the notice.

This is not the first time such an attempt has been made to force Mr Dew to remove the vehicles. The council served a similar enforcement notice on him in 2019, at the time giving him six months to comply. But it appears no further action was taken, and the vehicles remained at the farm.

Mr Dew has also owned the Riverside Inn in Ross-on-Wye and the Malt Shovel in Ruardean.

Meanwhile Doward Farm itself continues to be advertised on several holiday letting websites capable of hosting up to 16 guests in seven bedrooms.