Dragons' Den star refuses to tear down 'anti-vax sanctuary' on 'vagina of land'
A former Dragon's Den star has hit back after being ordered to tear down a controversial 'anti-vaxxer sanctuary' in the Peak District.
Rachel Elnaugh was one of the original five investors and starred in the first two seasons of the hit BBC show, alongside Duncan Bannatyne, Simon Woodroffe, Peter Jones and Doug Richard.
But her business, Red Letter Days, floundered and was carved up by her fellow dragons, and since then she's slipped out of the limelight - but it turns out she's been busy.
She purchased 70 acres of protected land including ancient trees and unimproved grassland in Cressbrook Dale, a limestone gorge near Bakewell, Derbyshire, which she refers to as an "incredible vagina of land".
Her declared intentions with the land have changed over time, and locals fear she intends to turn it into an eco-farm and retreat for followers of her group, the "Inner Sanctum", who believe in a "food apocalypse" and the "great reset".
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But the supposed plan came undone when the Peak National Park Authority issued an official enforcement notice stating the group had to return the land to its original state.
Now Rachel has hit back at a local campaign group, Save Cressbrook Dale, stating the council's intervention is a result of a 'hate campaign' by the group.
Rachel Elnaugh appeared on the first two seasons of Dragon's Den (rachelelnaugh.com)
She's now turned her attention away from big business (rachelelnaugh.com)Do you remember Rachel Elnaugh? Let us know in the comments...
Speaking to the Mirror, Rachel said: "I am dismayed at the depths to which the Cressbrook local community have stopped in what is now clearly a hate campaign directed at me personally.
"I am currently compiling evidence for a private prosecution of those involved.
"I am not authorised to comment on behalf of the co-owners, some of whom are elderly with walking disabilities - however I do wonder whether their right - to freely and safely access the land which they own - have been considered by those attempting to deny those rights?"
The notice, seen by The Mirror, states that there has been a breach of planning protocol on the land, and a vehicle parking area, some steps, a path, and a tipi must be removed.
The notice goes on to describe the land in question as a part of a 'natural zone', subject to specific restrictions.
A spokesperson for the Save Cressbrook Dale group said: "We see it as the right thing - the quote that is in the notice about the importance of the landscape and maintaining access is what our campaign has all been about, so it's validation of that really.
"She has the right of appeal and she could appeal the notice, it's hard to know what motivates her and how she works.
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"The notice means she has to remove everything noted in the enforcement notice - the steps, the parking, the teepee, there are a few things that have been left out like the caravan and the pond that they put in - they have been left out of the enforcement notice, we are talking to peak park about that."
A letter sent by Rachel Elnaugh to residents of Cressbrook Dale (Save Cressbrook Dale)
Rachel founded Red Letter Days which was, for a time, wildly successful (Red Letter Days)Rachel Elnaugh became a celebrity of sorts when she appeared on the BBC game show where she competed to invest in new businesses alongside her fellow dragons.
The businesswoman, who starred in the first two series of the show and was initially the only female investor, founded Red Letter Days in 1989 which became a whopping success with a turnover of £18m.
But it eventually faltered and she was ' forced out ' of the show, before her company finally went into administration leaving behind a series of unpaid suppliers and disappointed customers.
Since then she aired her controversial views on the Covid vaccination programme - and sparked outrage when she called for Chris Whitty to hang, calling jabs of 12-15-year-olds "child abuse".
She also snapped up the ancient and protected woodland in the Peak District, angering locals and the local authority in the process.
John Butler, chair of the Cressbrook community group and lead spokesperson for the Save Cressbrook Dale campaign, previously spoke to The Mirror.
He has lived in the area for the past 50 years and regularly enjoyed walking through the dale - which he described as a "crown jewel of the Peak District National Park" - but he fears for its future.
He said: "It's not clear what she intends to do with the land, it seems to be changing.
"The original intention that was expressed was to establish a self-sufficient eco-community on the land.
Local residents in Cressbrook have formed a campaign group (Save Cressbrook Dale)"They had a million-pound business plan in order to bring that to fruition, which included quite a lot of infrastructure that they were going to install, including wind turbines, greenhouses and polytunnels, alongside £90,000 worth of movable structures.
"So at that point, it looked like they were building a settlement on the land. However, it was clear right from the outset that the land is simply not fit for that purpose.
"It's not fertile agricultural land, most of it is ancient woodland, there's 70 acres altogether and 50 are just woodland.
"Some is marginal grazing land, it's very poor soil and unimproved land, so it's never been cultivated in a serious way - so it's not remotely capable of producing viable crops for a self-sufficient community."
In a letter, Rachel explained to local residents that she had bought the land and stated that she wanted to "get as much as we can planted for this growing season."
She stated that it was her intention to "create a fully self-sustaining 'food-apocalypse-proof' site", and invited them to "be part of our growing community of open-hearted souls".
Rachel's prospectus states that her aim is to "build a better world" away from "polarization of rich and poor" (sic) and "ecological devastation".
There is a clear hierarchy in the groupAfter obtaining the land, Rachel posted on Facebook: "Given the predicted food apocalypse, one of our first priorities will be to create a food forest across the land to nourish the entire Cressbrook community."
In one version of the prospectus, that has been seen by The Mirror, she encourages people to invest the project, stating that for anything from £20,000 up to £100,000 you could become a "founding freeholder".
This entitles the investor to "access to Cressbrook Dale Estate for yourself and your immediate family", alongside "rights to any produce of the land", including "wood, vegetables, foraging, natural water".
The prospectus states that these rights "will continue, in perpetuity, for the heirs/descendants of the founding Freeholders."
The document also hints at the structure of the organisation, with "potentially thousands" of micro freeholders on the outside of the sphere, or bottom of the pyramid, 15-55 elite "founding freeholders", and a group of six who make up the "Core Mandala"
It states: "The Core Mandala (aka Phoenix Rose) is the group of six women who both held the vision to manifest this land, as well as being committed to investing, plus having a future involvement in the ongoing management/enhancement of Cressbrook Dale Estate.
"Micro-Freeholders are by-invitation-only visitors over time who will enjoy limited rights to access, for example, a weekend’s camping or a shamanic retreat - ensuring that Cressbrook Dale Estate may be enjoyed by many thousands of people over the years, in return for a reasonable amount of financial resources."
The Core Mandala consists of Rachel Elnaugh, Janet Spence, Leila Rose, Mog Fry, Angela Harrison, and Davina Mackail.
The 'Core Mandala' from Rachel's organisationOn her website, Rachel writes about the "Inner Sanctum", which is on the quest to establish "several eco-communities across the UK" where people pool their resources to acquire land.
She wrote: "I am delighted to let you know that on June 7, 2022, we acquired Cressbrook Dale Estate - a breathtaking c70 acre site near to Monsal Head in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire UK.
"This opportunity came about quite by chance via one of our local Bakewell 'Stand in the Park' regulars who knew the estate management team at Stanton Estate.
"They had acquired the land when the Cressbrook Mill went bankrupt in the 1930's, had found it difficult to manage, but wanted it to go to a good home.
"The opportunity necessitated a complete shift in our initial vision - as although all c50 acres of forest and c20 acres of pastureland is agricultural there are no farm buildings on site.
"However it is rich in all the resources required for self-sustainability with natural springs plenty of wood and sheltered from the harsher elements of weather.
"We're managing it remotely for now and hope to rent or buy properties in the area as a closer base for those wishing to be on-site more regularly."
The website also included the words to the 'prayer of the seven galactic directions', and went on to explain how she made a spiritual offering to the land.
Previously, Rachel spoke out about the Covid-19 vaccination program, and in 2021 she sparked outrage when she called for Chris Whitty to hang, calling the vaccination of 12-15-year-olds "child abuse".
Diggers have been seen on the land (YouTube/SaveCressbrookDale)Some locals believe the "inner sanctum" is a cult where people believe the UK is heading to a food apocalypse.
John added previously: "What you and I might think of as a cult, people within might think of it as a loving community, certainly she was talking to an audience who had feared apocalyptic change for sure, and were attracted by the thought of some kind of retreat from that.
"She's a very persuasive speaker, she's imbued with the full range of conspiracy theories, and she's very good at regurgitating them and connecting them into one overarching conspiracy. If you're susceptible to that kind of spin, she's very convincing. If you try and analyse what she's saying, it all unravels very quickly.
"She's very skilful at handling any rejection of her point of view, for instance, her expressed view about the covid vaccination program was that that was a conspiracy to insert microprocessors in us, in order to conduct a world population cull.
"If you take a deep breath and think now hang on a minute, there will be many of us that have a bit of anxiety about that, but that leading you to an idea that the world economic forum is organising a program of extermination or a population cull is many steps too far for me.
A 'security' caravan has been installed on the land (YouTube/SaveCressbrookDale)"She's monetised the threat, and she's done that through her online presence - she makes these pronouncements to people who are already worried about these things, many of us have read that stuff and think it's bonkers but some hang in there and they're clearly vulnerable to a line of argument or accumulation of arguments that don't hold water but do none the less create fear and anxiety and make people at risk.
"I think, I'm speculating and inferring from what she's saying and what she's not saying, her focus has now changed from agriculture towards an assertion to the land they've bought or in the process of buying is some sort of natural temple.
"She has very repeatedly referred to it as 'the great vagina', I think she's moving towards an esoteric healing community centre. She hasn't said that explicitly, let me make that clear.
"I think the plan would depend on the capacity for the land to become a campsite, and there are strict regulations about how much camping is permitted on this land, as well as requirements for sanitation, water supply, all that kind of thing.
Rachel Elnaugh (centre) starred in the first two series of the BBC show (BBC)Cressbrook Dale is a limestone valley and sits between Bakewell and Buxton, near Matlock, and the woodland in question is home to a rare species of moss and two types of butterfly, the Dark Green Fritillary and the White-letter Hairstreak.
It provides a unique habitat for local flora and fauna and as such, the area is subject to a Tree Preservation Order protecting the trees and woodland.
It is also designated as part of the Natural Zone, the highest level of conservation protection in the Peak District National Park.
Locals believe that all of the stated intentions of the Phoenix Rose community would require change of use planning approval, and the Peak District National Park Authority has made it clear such approval would not be granted.
But since Rachel bought it in May 2022, she put in a hard-standing car park and installed a caravan and agricultural tools including a polytunnel and a teepee, according to local residents.
Cressbrook Dale is a protected alrea (YouTube/SaveCressbrookDale)The local authority warned Rachel that her activities must stop, and when she carried on they issued a Temporary Stop Notice on July 25.
A spokesperson said: "Following concerns over the nature of activities recently undertaken on land owned in Cressbrook Dale, the Peak District National Park Authority has served a Temporary Stop Notice, issued a Tree Preservation Order and served a Planning Contravention Notice questionnaire to the landowner, who now has a statutory period to respond.
"Senior officers from both the authority's planning and ecology teams have also engaged with the landowner to discuss the works, and explain the importance of the sensitive habitats and the landscape value of the area."
John continued: "The Peak National Park Authority are clearly monitoring the situation, they issued the temporary stop notice, I guess they were hoping that would be sufficient to deter the new owners and I'm pretty sure that they will at some point take some enforcement action because there is some stuff on the land that has been there for six months, which is illegal.
A temporary stop notice has been served (YouTube/SaveCressbrookDale)"The trouble is it's not just our back garden, the fact is that land is heavily protected by the national park, all those items shouldn't be there, there on a piece of open access land, which means that anyone can go through anywhere they want on that land.
"It's because it is one of the last wild spaces and it supports an amazing array of natural flora and fauna. The biodiversity is remarkable there, and that's because it's been unchanged, not dug, up, not cultivated, for a very long time.
"Everything they have done to the land so far, which is clearly the beginning of their plans, has been detrimental to the land because of its fragility.
"When you look into it and think why was this land given this level of protection, what makes it so special, you see that everything they've done is quite unacceptable."
Annie Sanderson, 66, a resident in Cressbrook, described the project as a "disaster". She said: "The dale is beautiful, it is why people moved here. We were given no consultation, we just started seeing videos being posted by this group about a food apocalypse".
On Rachel's website, she also talks about "PsyOps" being used to "manipulate the masses" and win elections, describing it as the " day democracy died ".
Local resident Jenny Caven said: "I think what they're doing is creating a community, that's what she's trying to sell to investors - that they will be able to support themselves when things go wrong - when they go apocalyptic.
"One of the things that is interesting, is that investors aren't investors in the original sense - they can't get their money back if they want to pull out, they're putting money into something that they believe in - they're not necessarily ever going to be able to get their money back out, so it's not a safe investment.
"She's trying to get people to put money into something that isn't a rational thing but an emotional thing.
Local resident Lynn Crowe has spoken out about the area (YouTube/SaveCressbrookDale)"She bought the land for £640,000, they made an initial payment of £240,000 and according to their prospectus were scheduled to pay a further two payments of £200,000 in August and October.
"It is not clear whether those payments have been made. They set out a total investment capital requirement of £1 million. The cost of the land is £640,000 payable to Stanton Estate, £30,000 payable is fees and stamp duty with a balance of £330,000 to be raised from investors.
"It's not clear what it's for. It's a lot money for people who don't know if they'll get it back, and a lot of money to invest in infrastructure."
Lynn Crowe, a local resident and emeritus professor of environmental management at Sheffield Hallam University, said: "These limestone dales are the closest thing that we have to true wilderness in the area.
"They are home to different species of orchid and rare butterflies including the Dark Green Fritillary and the White-letter Hairstreak.
"The area needs to be protected as a precious last refuge for wildlife, and so that the area remains accessible to walkers and nature lovers who come to enjoy the tranquillity and solitude of the area."
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