Horses may have to be put down as animal sanctuary faces eviction so multi-million pound retirement village can be built on greenbelt

A sanctuary for elderly and disabled ponies is facing eviction so that a multi-million pound retirement village can be built on the greenbelt land it calls home - amid fears many horses could have to be put down.

Cecil's Horse Sanctuary in Elstree, Hertfordshire, has been given three months to quit the 5.8 acre site by Star Pubs, owner of Heineken, who are selling the lot to Retirement Villages Group.

RVG - a subsidiary of AXA - have applied to Hertsmere Council to build 141 homes on the land, a development which is part of a wider national scheme worth over £2bn.

Sanctuary owner Julie Blake, 63, told the Mail Online that she fears the nineteen ponies who live on the land could be seized and impounded by police as stray horses if a new suitable site is not found by November 3 - and that if this happens, it's possible that they could all be destroyed

She told the Mail Online: 'RVG gave us a Memorandum of Understanding on February 8th this year which said we needed to quit the site by December 23rd. I refused to sign it as I have nowhere else to go. Now they want us gone by November 3rd, and I still have nowhere to go.

'We know we can't stay here. If RVG don't buy and develop the land, someone else will. But I genuinely fear that the deadline will come and my horses will be impounded as strays and then destroyed.'

The ponies who live at Cecil's Horse Sanctuary have all been abandoned due to their age, ill health or due to having disabilities. Among the herd are animals who are totally blind, stricken with breathing issues, liver disease and one very elderly pony aged 28.

Some of the ponies were saved from being exported to Europe to be slaughtered for meat.

'They are all old or unwell ponies. They need medication, and to be constantly checked on by the charity's team of volunteers and a yard manager,' Ms Blake adds.

A representative for RVG says that the company offered to establish Ms. Blake and the ponies at an alternative site in Potters Bar, paying for five years rent and offering an additional £7,500 for fences as a goodwill gesture, but the offer was refused.

Ms. Blake explained that the site needed a lot of work and it wasn't financially sustainable long term.

She says: 'We've been offered one site but it's too far away, and it's too expensive we would have spent all the money on fences and stables, and then in five years time, if they didn't renew my lease or I couldn't afford to stay there, all that work would be passed on to the next person that moved in and I would be left with nothing.

'We have tried not to cause any problems. We aren't stupid, we know we have to leave. But I'm not going somewhere where I can't reach every night and every morning, and can't afford after their pot of money is gone.

'I'm not doing it. I cannot do this again. I am 63. When I move, that's it. It has to be the last time I have to move. I'm not doing it to the ponies.'

Animal rescues across the UK are in crisis as more and more people abandon their pets as food and vital vet care becomes impossible to afford, and there's been a shocking increase in animal abuse cases.

Ms. Blake says that money is so incredibly tight that if her ponies were seized then she wouldn't be able to afford to get them back.

'I'm emptying the PayPal account of donations every day, just to keep the Sanctuary afloat,' she says.

In the UK, stray horses and ponies seized by police are typically taken to a greenyard, an equine version of a dogpound. Owners have just seven days to claim the animals back, and have to pay hundreds of pounds in fees to have them returned. If the animals are not claimed - either because the owner has no funds or nowhere for them to go, they can end up being destroyed.

'We have said we would go to the ends of the earth to stop them from being put down, but now it could become a reality,' Ms. Blake says.

'I've got to be off by the 3rd of November. We've been looking for additional land for these ponies for years. Why is it suddenly going to appear by the 3rd November? What I'm worried about is that they will end up at a greenyard, and they'll be put down. I am absolutely petrified that is going to happen. Good greenyards will try and rehome them, but that wouldn't be the case for ponies like mine.

'They're not normal, riding school ponies. I say that they "live naturally with benefits", so they're fed twice a day, have the farrier, see the vet, have access to fresh water. They can be groomed and fussed, and led around, but they're not used for riding.

'To get them in a horsebox you'd need a vet present, they'd likely need sedation. Moving them would be incredibly distressing for them.'

Until earlier this year, the ponies were regularly visited by children and disabled groups from the local community but Ms. Blake says borehole explorations by RVG's developers brought these to an end due to the uneven ground and mud making it unsuitable for wheelchairs and other vulnerable people with mobility issues.

Ms. Blake said: 'After the first set were completed, not all of the holes were filled in and one of the miniature shetlands went in and has been left permanently disabled - but we couldn't prove it. He has an injured shoulder, he has been left with a limp. I told RVG but no one was interested.

'The second lot, we were told it would last 10 days and it turned out to be 23 weeks. The horses were forced onto the top of the yard onto a tiny bit of land, and we had to keep putting more and more straw down because there was nowhere for them to go through the winter. It was just horrendous.

The boreholes left mud everywhere. We had to evacuate the blind ponies out of their stables because they were filling up with mud rolling down the hill.'

Last weekend local MP Oliver Dowden visited the Sanctuary and voiced his concern for the sanctuary and the ponies' future.

He wrote: 'I remain firm that we should not be building on green belt land, except in exceptional circumstances. I have serious concerns over what exactly the exceptional circumstances there are in this case and have raised this with the council.

'I also have serious concerns of the welfare of the horses should Cecil's struggle to find an alternative site for them and have offered my support to help them in their search for an appropriate alternative site.'

A Change.org petition started by local Councillor Michelle Vince in support of Cecil's Horse Sanctuary currently has over 88,000 signatures.

A Retirement Villages group spokesperson said: 'Retirement Villages Group has an option to buy the land at Elstree to develop much needed housing for older people in the area. Although the land is neither owned nor controlled by RVG, we have worked constructively with the founder of Cecil's and the charity's trustees to find them a more sustainable site.

'To this end, we recently secured a larger, 17-acre site nearby with much better grazing for the horses, which we agreed to fund for five years. Having the rent covered would have allowed Cecil's a significant period to fundraise and prepare for the future, but the charity chose to withdraw at the eleventh hour and unfortunately the site is no longer available. We have always worked in a positive, constructive fashion with the charity's trustees and will continue to do so. In the meantime, Cecil's can continue to occupy the site for the foreseeable future under the terms of a new lease offered by the landlord.'

A representative for Star Pubs said: 'Star Pubs & Bars is aware of the intention of RVD/AXA to submit a planning application to build on the site adjoining the East pub. As a result of this the time has now come for us to serve notice on the licensee of the land in question in order that we can comply with the legal terms of the option agreement that we are bound by.'