A GREEN party activist has labelled Lord Bathurst a hypocrite for not paying Capital Gains Tax while collecting almost £370,000 in farming subsidies.

Bob Irving, who stood for the party in district elections on May 7, said he was “mostly ambivalent” about the 2,350 home Chesterton development planned by Bathurst Development Limited but felt it was unfair the land was not subject to UK tax laws.

Lord Bathurst is set to make millions from the Chesterton development if it goes ahead, but the land is registered in Bermuda and so he does not have to pay the government tax on assets.

A spokesman for Bathurst Development Limited said all tax arrangements were above board.

However, Mr Irving, of Albion Street in Stratton, pointed out that Lord Bathurst’s Cirencester Park Farms Ltd still collects the Basic Payment Scheme under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, to the tune of £368,251 in 2014.

Mr Irving said the Bathursts should pay the tax as they were dependent on “state schools and universities to educate the people they employ, the publicly-financed Fire Brigade if there are fires in their properties and on the public road system for conveying their goods”.

In July the Standard broke the news that the land earmarked for the contentious Chesterton development was being held in Bermuda.

“The only reason he’s got that land is because he was born to the right woman,” Mr Irving said.

“Can Lord Bathurst please be reminded that taxation is the fee that we pay for living in a civilised society and that the more you own, the more support you require from that society?

“And just because tax-dodging is legal, it doesn't mean it's moral.”

A spokesman for Bathurst Development Limited said: “The majority of The Earl Bathurst’s estate is managed in trust for future generations. In 1996, as part of the ongoing management of the estate’s assets, the trustees transferred the land at Chesterton into an offshore trust.

“Bathurst Development Limited is a UK company set up to promote the land at Chesterton for a high quality mixed-use residential led development. All of the arrangements are fully disclosed to HMRC and compliant with the relevant rules. Cirencester Park Farms Limited, as the tenant farmer, receives some Basic Payment Scheme money for the land."