THE Earl of Cardigan is to face his tenants the Forestry Commission in court in a bid to settle a long standing feud over Savernake Forest.

Lord Cardigan, the hereditary warden of Savernake, has been at loggerheads with the Forestry Commission for years over its operations in the 4,800 acre forest.

The commission was granted a 999-year lease on Savernake in 1939. He has taken issue with the commission on a number of issues over the years including:

l Whether it had the right to manage other areas of forest from its Savernake offices.

l The putting up of buildings to house machinery not solely used in Savernake.

l Running a retail shop for campers at the Postern Hill camp site.

l Bringing in Christmas trees from other areas to sell in Savernake.

Lord Cardigan's latest bugbear is the commission's experiment in returning an area of the woods at Cadley into forest pasture which involves fencing off 100 acres where cows would be able to graze down the undergrowth. The commission contends this was the traditional way of managing the forest.

Lord Cardigan said: "This is unacceptable to the trustees because though the Forestry Commission might possibly find this strange project interesting, it cannot seriously argue the experiment is necessary for afforestation.

"This huge barbed wire enclosure means that all the valuable pheasant shooting that we lease in that area to a syndicate of local Marlborough/Burbage businessmen has been ruined, as plainly you can't raise pheasants where loose herds of cattle have been released to run wild."

Lord Cardigan said the commission had refused to remove the fencing. "Accordingly the trustees have now issued a High Court writ, seeking a court order to have the terms of the lease enforced."

In a tit for tat move, the Forestry Commission has issued its own writ against the Savernake trustees, said a spokesman. "We are taking Lord Cardigan to court to get clarification over the alleged breaches."

The commission is hoping its application to the High Court will be heard in February. The spokesman said: "We are trying to draw a line under all the complaints he has had against us. The Christmas tree sales and camp site shop are history now."