Council pay £2,401 for Westward Ho! field

The sum of £2,401 was paid out by Northam Urban Council to complete the compulsory purchase order made in respect of the field beyond Seafield House, Westward Ho! acquired, together with Rock Nose Quarry, as public walks and pleasure grounds.

News of the settlement figure was announced by Mr L G H Braddick, managing director of Braddick’s Holiday Camp Ltd, Bideford, the owners of the land. Mr Braddick said “I am agreeably surprised at the settlement which, as far as I am concerned, amounts to a tax free payment.” Mr Braddick added that it seemed to him to be a large sum for the ratepayers of the district to have to pay for a field that had only been used by his firm for 28 days a year and even during that period the public had free access. “The field is now to be an open space as it was before other than for that 28 day period,” he said.

16 March 1956