#duchy-of-lancaster

#duchy-of-lancaster

A portion of the land dubbed the UK's worst illegal waste dump is owned by the Duchy of Lancaster, the King's extensive private portfolio of properties and estates. The waste site in Bickershaw, Wigan, is part of the UK's mounting crisis of illegal dumping. But the Duchy has said due to an ancient feudal legal framework from more than 700 years ago, it is in effect exempt from cleaning up the site, according to an investigation by Channel 4 News.

The Duchy of Lancaster negotiated payments totalling 1,132,400 by selling land for road works near a proposed hub station in Crewe, Cheshire in a deal that has emerged despite the organisation's assertion that it is completely self-financing and does not rely on taxpayers' money. The duchy which has been controlled by reigning monarchs since medieval times and exists to provide them with a private income acquired a sprawling, 1,400-hectare (3,450-acre) estate set around the Jacobean mansion of Crewe Hall in 1936.