Douglas Council has lost another appeal in a long-running dispute over a dilapidated building in the borough.

The saga over Braddan Lodge on Quarterbridge Road has been rumbling on for a quarter of a century.

For years Douglas Council had been trying to get Richard David Bellamy to complete or demolish an unsightly extension to Braddan Lodge.

In September 2014, the local authority issued a notice – the fourth notice it had issued – giving Mr Bellamy as owner of the property six months to complete the unfinished works.

Mr Bellamy’s appeal against that notice was dismissed as was a doleance claim.

Then in May 2016, Douglas Council issued a summons for failure to comply with the notice. The matter went to trial in 2017 where Mr Bellamy successfully argued there was no case to answer.

In August 2017, the council issued a claim against Mr Bellamy over unpaid rates of £856.

The council subsequently withdrew the claim, but not before Mr Bellamy issued a counterclaim for £50,000 damages, claiming ‘malicious prosecution, negligence, deceit and misfeasance in public office’.

In his counterclaim, Mr Bellamy argued that the notice issued in 2014 was not valid because it was not lawfully authorised by either the Mayor in Council or the environmental services committee and Kathleen Rice as chief executive had no delegated powers to sign it.

Mr Bellamy has always maintained he was not the legal owner of Braddan Lodge but an executor of the estate of his late mother who was the late owner.

Douglas Council attempted to get the counterclaim struck out but lost and an appeal also failed.

Following a hearing in October last year, Mr Bellamy’s claims for deceit and malicious prosecution were dismissed by Deemster Morris – but the negligence claim was upheld. Mr Bellamy was awarded damages of £12,064 plus costs and interest.

Douglas Council has now lost its appeal against Deemster Morris’s judgment and his costs order.

Two previous notices issued by the local authority had failed in the courts and a third notice was taken all the way to a contested trial.

Deemster Morris had ruled the fourth notice issued in 2014 was defective for a number of reasons, including that it failed to state the timeframe for the required works. It was a finding of fact that the chief executive had issued it with the genuine and honestly held belief she had authority to do so but in fact did not have such authority.

In the latest judgment, Judge of Appeal Anthony Cross KC, Deemster William Bailhache KC and Deemster Jeremy Storey KC dismissed all grounds of the appeal.