By John Elworthy BUSINESSMAN David Markinson has quit the seat he won on West Norfolk Council in 2007 on an anti wind turbine ticket and moved to Spain. I was elected by the people of Marshland and Walsoken to oppose the building of a large scale wind f

By John Elworthy

BUSINESSMAN David Markinson has quit the seat he won on West Norfolk Council in 2007 on an anti wind turbine ticket and moved to Spain.

"I was elected by the people of Marshland and Walsoken to oppose the building of a large scale wind farm development in Marshland Fen," he said.

"In doing so, my single election promise has been fulfilled and accordingly I have decided to resign from my seat and return to work on the board of my family's European property business, which is based in Madrid."

Cllr Markinson's poll vote of 396 was double that of Labour group leader Jack Bantoft who had held the seat for 18 years.

In the years that followed he was at the centre of the controversy over the proposed wind farm for Marshland whose plans were rejected by West Norfolk Council last January.

But Cllr Markinson may best be remembered for the campaign he started two years before his election when he launched a test case against the Information Commissioner who had sided with West Norfolk Council over the cost of obtaining photo copies of documents.

Cllr Markinson won support from Friends of the Earth to appeal after he had been told he must pay up to �6.50 per photo copy for copies of the planning permission relating to his Marshland home.

A tribunal agreed the charges were unreasonable and the resulting victory ensured councils could no longer charge what they liked.

It was a landmark decision, and Cllr Markinson mounted another campaign- this time to lift the agricultural restriction on his Alder Lodge, Rands Drove home.

Cllr Markinson had previously been refused permission to lift the restriction but in October 2007 he won the day after gaining support from the development control committee of West Norfolk Council.

In 2009 the house he had bought for �250,000 with the agricultural condition was advertised for twice that amount and in December he found a buyer and moved out.

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