King Charles’s second cousin Lord Ivar Mountbatten upsets locals with plans to ‘charge them £60 a year to walk their dogs on his 100-acre estate’
- TV personality has upset locals with plan to charge for dog walking on his estate
- The annual fee for local residents in Devon is rumoured to be at around £60
Lord Ivar Mountbatten has upset locals over reported plans to begin charging people £60 a year to walk their dogs on his estate.
His business affairs present more of a challenge. I hear the aristocratic TV personality, who became the first member of the extended Royal Family to have a same-sex wedding, has upset locals by announcing that he plans to charge them to walk their dogs on his 100-acre Devon estate. A £60 annual fee is rumoured.
‘The rise in living and operational costs in the past 12 months means our maintenance, management and operational obligations have spiralled far higher than the return of coffee, cake and community events can cover,’ he writes in the parish magazine.
‘James and I are left with some tough decisions for the year ahead.
‘I want to continue to offer access to the Orangery and Parkland across seven days a week.
Lord Ivar Mountbatten picturedwith his husband James Coyle at their home Bridwell House in Devon
An aerial view of Bridewell House in Devon, the home of Lord Ivar Mountbatten, where he plans to charge locals to walk their dogs
‘But if we’re going to remain open, we need our guests and visitors to support us a bit more if they can.’
However, one dog walker tells me: ‘As you can imagine, people are not very happy.
‘It is one thing charging non-locals a day fee to visit but quite another exploiting what is really a captive audience. I don’t think people will pay it.
‘It is a pleasant enough park, but you have to keep your dog on the lead because of all the deer roaming around and all the water birds on the lake.’
A Stag looks on as they roam Bridwell Park Estate, Devon, on December last year – home to Lord Ivar Mountbatten
Lord Ivar, who was a first cousin, once removed, of Prince Philip and a third cousin, once removed, of Queen Elizabeth, opened Bridwell Park, in Culm Valley, to the public during the pandemic.
He and Coyle launched the Orangery cafe to supplement their income after their lucrative wedding business was hit by Covid restrictions.
It featured in the ITV programme Keeping Up With The Aristocrats.