Cobo car park row: 'the owner' breaks his silence

A MYSTERY man who claims to own Cobo car park has finally spoken out about the dispute over the land - ending 18 months of silence.

Sark resident Thomas Holroyd, 38, speaking exclusively to the Guernsey Press, said he had bought Fief Les Carterets, which he says includes the car park, from his mother at the end of 2006 for £50,000.

The long-running dispute between Mr Holroyd and Sandpiper, which owns the Checkers Xpress store that relies on the car park, started when he contacted the company at the beginning of 2007 asking it to sign a new agreement for use of the land because the previous one was due to expire.

That agreement had been signed in 1987 by the previous seigneurs of the fief, the parish and surrounding businesses, giving permission for them to use the car park in exchange for paying for its upkeep. Mr Holroyd said he no longer felt that agreement to be fair or appropriate.

'My mother was also paying insurance for the land and that did not seem right to me,' he said.

Mr Holroyd, who declined to be photographed, said he was not prepared, at this stage, to say how much rent he had asked for, but Sandpiper CEO Tony O'Neill said it was £120,000 per year.