Villagers triumph against Lady Victoria Getty in war over SLURRY pit on her Suffolk farm

Villagers have triumphed against the widow of billionaire Sir Paul Getty in a war over plans to create a 600,000-gallon lake of cow manure on her 130-acre farm in Suffolk, MailOnline can reveal. 

Lady Victoria Getty’s company Slough Hall Farm had submitted plans to Babergh District Council for the lagoon to hold 2,300 cubic metres of dirty water in the quant village of Brent Eleigh.

But locals slammed the proposal, dubbing the 78-year-old ‘Lady Muck’ due to fears the pit would create a vile stench in the community of 174 people. 

The plans have now been scrapped, with the firm’s planning agent telling MailOnline: ‘We have withdrawn the application as there are other solutions available. We have no further comment.’ 

Catherine Bank and Deborah Hollister, who own a B&B nearby, earlier criticised the proposal as ‘not acceptable’.

They wrote: ‘The stench of slurry, the invasive reverberating noise of operations and disadvantageous impact on nearby footpaths and roads is not acceptable.’

Lady Getty, who is thought to live over 100 miles away at Wormsley Park in Buckinghamshire, took over Brook Farm in 2015, amassing a herd of 150 Red Poll cattle.

Before she married the oil-rich billionaire, the Suffolk farmer’s daughter was known for her glinting smile in Seventies TV advertisements for Gibbs toothpaste and appearing in a campaign for Nivea.

Lady Getty (pictured in March 2017), who is thought to live over 100 miles away at Wormsley Park in Buckinghamshire, took over Brook Farm in 2015, amassing a herd of 150 Red Poll cattle

Sir Paul Getty pictured with his wife Lady Victoria in Piccadilly in 1996. Before she married the oil-rich billionaire, the Suffolk farmer’s daughter was known for her glinting smile in Seventies TV advertisements for Gibbs toothpaste

Locals slammed the proposal, dubbing the 78-year-old ‘Lady Muck’ due to fears the pit would create a vile stench in the community of 174 people (pictured: village of Brent Eleigh in Suffolk)

The farm’s plans for a slurry pit to manage the cattle waste had prompted objections from 19 villagers.

Elizabeth Knight, who runs a nursing home in the village, said: ‘I, like all the other residents in the village, will agree that this application proposal would have the most devastating effect on the whole of our beautiful village and on all of us who live here.’

Local resident Dr Peter Neale added: ‘The proposed site is located less than 100m from the nearest residential property and within 400m of a large number of residential properties and businesses within the village.

‘I am concerned that it will increase existing odours significantly, particularly in the warmer months affecting local residents and businesses.’ 

Slurry pits are concrete structures where farmers gather animal and organic waste to convert it into fertiliser for their crops. 

Storage tanks or pits that are within 33ft of inland or coastal waters require written permission from the Environment Agency.

A drawing illustrating the site location plan. The planning agent told MailOnline: ‘We have withdrawn the application as there are other solutions available. We have no further comment’

The plan, submitted as part of an application to Babergh District Council. Slurry pits are concrete structures where farmers gather animal and organic waste to convert it into fertiliser for their crops

The proposal showed that the proposed lagoon would have a depth of 16ft, and measure around 82ft x 98ft. But the plans to manage the cattle waste prompted objections from 19 villagers

James Davis, landlord of the Cock Inn, told The Sun: ‘We set up a beer garden at the start of the pandemic and it has been very successful.

‘But I don’t think many people will want to drink outside this summer if they have to sit downwind of a huge slurry pit.’  

Natural England had said it could not assess the plans due to a lack of detail but wrote of its concerns over the environmental impact of slurry lagoons.

Julian Clarke, the government body’s consultation advisor, wrote: ‘Manure stores, slurry lagoons and livestock sheds are a major source of emissions of ammonia which is directly toxic to vegetation and especially to lower plants (mosses, liverworts and lichens).

‘Ammonia is also a major contributor to the deposition of nitrogen, which reduces habitat biodiversity by promoting the growth of a relatively small number of the more vigorous plant species which then out-compete the other species present.’ 

Lady Getty (pictured with her son in June 2007), who is thought to live over 100 miles away at Wormsley Park in Buckinghamshire, took over Brook Farm in 2015, amassing a herd of 150 Red Poll cattle

Lady Getty pictured attending the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation Party, at Stud House, Hampton Court Palace, with Russian businessmen Alexander Lebedev, Evgeny Lebedev, Victoria Getty and Mikhail Gorbachev in June 2010

Setting out the need for the slurry pit, the farm stated: ‘The farm is home to a herd of around 150 Red Pol cattle, a traditional Suffolk breed reared for beef.

‘Surface water and waste from the yard area is currently collected to a submerged holding tank and then pumped onto the fields; this is an inefficient method of storage and collection which is unable to deal with the volume of dirty water generated.’

In 2015 the Gettys were listed as the 54th richest American family, with an estimated worth of $5billion (£3.68billion). J Paul Getty founded the company. 

The Scotch-Irish family struck liquid gold after immigrating to the US from County Londonderry in Northern Ireland.   

However, money has brought an equal amount of problems for the Getty family and the family tree is scattered with scandal and tragedy.

J Paul Getty had five children from five marriages, and one of his daughters-in-law died of a heroin overdose.

When his grandson J Paul Getty III was kidnapped in 1973, his grandfather only agreed to pay the £2.7million ($3.2million) ransom for his release after the captors cut off one of the then 16-year-old’s ears.

At the time of his death in 1976, J Paul Getty was thought to be the richest man in the world – the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died two months before him.

In 2015 the Gettys were listed as the 54th richest American family, with an estimated worth of $5billion (£3.68billion). J Paul Getty (pictured circa 1960) founded the company

In 1999, Gordon Getty (pictured with his wife Ann in 1973) made headlines when it was revealed he had a secret family with girlfriend Cynthia Beck, fathering three daughters 

About a decade later, son Gordon Getty, Andrew’s father, sold the family company to Texaco for £7.4billion ($10billion).

After paying about £736million ($1billion) in capital gains for the deal, Gordon split the proceeds of the sale into four equal parts of £552million ($750million). 

Gordon and brother J Paul Getty Jr each received £552million ($750million) cuts. The three daughters of eldest son George F Getty II split a £552million ($750million) portion and the final portion was given to the descendants of disfavored son Jean Ronald Getty, who only received £2,200 ($3,000) a year in income from the deal.

Andrew Getty is the second of four sons Gordon Getty had with wife Ann. 

In 1999, Gordon Getty made headlines when it was revealed he had a secret family with girlfriend Cynthia Beck, fathering three daughters. He was worth £1.5billion ($2.1billion) in 2014, according to Forbes.

Andrew Getty purchased his 70-year-old home in the Hollywood Hills in 1996 following the death of previous owner Miklos Rozsa, a three-time Academy Award-winning film composer known for his work on Ben-Hur.  

The tragedies of the Getty family: From failed marriages and bigamy to a kidnapping by the Italian Mafia 

J. Paul Getty: The industrial patriarch who founded the Getty dynasty. He made his first million dollars by the age of 24 and his fortune thrived during the Great Depression.

Getty was known for being a miser – he once installed a pay phone at his British stately home.

Despite his business success, he had five failed marriages – three in the 1920s alone.

John Paul Getty III had his ear cut off by Italian mobsters after being held to ransom for a portion of his wealthy family’s fortune – which his grandfather initially refused to pay

He had five son with four of the wives – George Franklin Getty II (1924–1973); Jean Ronald Getty (born 1929); Eugene Paul Getty, later John Paul Getty Jr (1932–2003) and Gordon Peter Getty (born 1934) and Timothy Ware Getty (1946–1958).

John Paul Getty III: The oil heir was kidnapped in Rome at the age of 16 by Italian mobsters who demanded $17million for his safe return.

His grandfather, J Paul Getty, initially refused to pay the ransom, thinking that his wild grandson had staged his own kidnapping to extract money from him.

In November 1973, a lock of hair and an ear were posted to a newspaper with a threat to send the rest of the teenager’s multilated bodies in bits.

The Gettys finally agreed to pay $3million and the teen was found alive at an Italian gas station.

John Paul Getty III was scarred both physically and mentally by the traumatic experience.

He became a drug addict and in 1981, he suffered a stroke from excessive alcohol and drug use. He was left without speech, nearly blind and partially paralyzed. He died at the age of 54.

Timothy Ware Getty: Born to J. Paul Getty’s fifth wife, Timmy developed a brain tumor at the age of six and was left blind. After years of seeing specialists, he died at the age of 12. 

According to a memoir published by his fifth wife, Louise Dudley ‘Teddy’ Lynch, in 2013, her husband admonished her for the cost of the medical bills. Getty, who was living in England, did not attend his son’s funeral in the U.S. and the couple divorced that year. 

Gordon Getty: Andrew Getty’s father, Gordon Getty, was embroiled in a scandal in 1999 when it was revealed the San Francisco social maven had been keeping a secret family in LA.

Gordon Getty pictured during the European Cultural Award ‘Taurus’ in October 2019

The revelation was made when Getty’s three daughters with secret girlfriend Cynthia Beck filed papers in court to change their last name and secure a fraction of their father’s fortune.

Gordon’s wife Ann and their sons had allegedly known about the Becks for some time, and she decided to stay with her husband, despite his infidelity. 

The move was allegedly pushed by Gordon’s daughters, who were eight, ten and 14 years old at the time, according to their lawyer Stephen Burgin.

‘They know and love their dad and wanted to bear his name. It’s fairly straightforward. Their mother is aware of it, but this is not her issue, it’s their issue,’ Burgin said.

Gordon put up no fight.

‘Nicolette, Kendalle and Alexandra are my children,’ he said in a statement through his lawyer in 1999.

‘Their mother, Cynthia Beck, and I love them very much. The most important concern is that the children’s needs be addressed this will be our first priority. The Getty family has been fully supportive throughout this situation, and for that I am very grateful.’

While he acted as his father’s successor in the family business, Gordon Getty’s real passion was music. He studied music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has composed two operas and other classical works.

He and his wife also run the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, a charitable trust which they invested $3 million into in 2002. Though he is a registered Republican. Gordon Getty has held numerous fundraisers for Democratic candidates like Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry.