A decade-long battle to get a landowner to clear up his farmland in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is facing yet another delay.

Maidstone council first started enforcement action against Langley Beck over the 14-hectare plot at Boxley Woods in May, 2014, after it found the land littered with broken vehicles and waste.

Beck has also been living in a temporary building on the plot without planning permission.

The council has already spent £43,000 of taxpayers’ money pursuing Beck through the courts.

On Friday, Beck was due to be sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court after finally being convicted of breaching planning regulations.

But he turned up to the hearing unrepresented by a solicitor and asked for a postponement.

He said he was unable to afford representation and was waiting on his application for Universal Credit to come through.

Scott Stemp, prosecuting, told the court that Beck had previously been represented at hearings by Irwin Mitchell solicitors, but it had withdrawn its services because it was not being paid.

Mr Stemp pointed out that as well as the land in dispute, Beck also owned 11 acres and a cottage at Westfield Sole Farm in Harp Farm Road.

The sentencing hearing had already been postponed twice - once because of difficulties finding a courtroom, and once because Beck had failed to show up.

Beck told the judge, Mr Recorder Fowler, that it was his intention to take his case to the Court of Human Rights.

Beck said he had suffered “21 years of persecution by those dirty, lying, sons of b*****s (the council)” and he described the hearing as “an invitation to a neck-tie party”.

In a parallel case, in which Beck had appeared in the High Court for contempt of court, his defence had claimed that he was unfit to plead because he suffered from a “hoarding disorder”.

That was rejected at the High Court last April by Mr Justice Sweeting, and Beck was convicted of contempt of court for failing to comply with a previous order to clear up the land and he was given a four-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

Mr Recorder Fowler said he was prepared to give Beck five weeks to find legal representation, observing that: “I am aware that there are certain psychiatric issues that would make it undesirable for Mr Beck to speak on his own behalf.”

He told Beck: “I give you this one opportunity to get representation. But if you come back without representation, the case will proceed anyway.

“If you do not appear, a warrant will be issued for your arrest.”

Beck was released on unconditional bail until May 9.

He faces an unlimited financial fine.

KentOnline has previously visited Beck’s site in Boxley.

Our reporter found it was littered with rusting cars, broken down portable buildings, broken pipes, piles of wire and hardcore, scrapped lorries and all kinds of domestic waste from fish tanks to garden gnomes.