A LANDED lord has gone to court over the lease of his land to Bournemouth Airport more than five years ago.

The Earl of Malmesbury, whose estates include large areas of Hurn, is suing property agents Strutt and Parker claiming they mismanaged his estate by undervaluing the rental for 12 acres of adjoining farmland leased to the airport for additional car parking in 2000.

At that time Lord Malmesbury, on the advice of his agents, agreed an annual rent of just £9,000 from the airport owners, National Express, which needed the extra swathe of land as part of an ambitious expansion plan for the former World War Two aerodrome.

Since then the airport, which was acquired in 2001 by its present owners Manchester Airport Group in a £241 million deal which also included East Midlands airport, has seen a four-fold increase in the number of passengers, which topped 800,000 last year and is expected to exceed one million in 2006.

Now, in a claim filed in the High Court earlier this month, James Carleton Harris, 59, the seventh Earl of Malmesbury, and the trustees of his estate, are suing for unlimited damages.

Their claim argues that by failing to negotiate a rent based on car park turnover, Strutt & Parker deprived the estate of a realistic income from the land.

The old Etonian Earl, who inherited the title on the death of his father in 2000, was himself a chartered surveyor with the firm of Austin and Wyatt before taking over the running of the family estates, including Greywell, near Basingstoke, where he lives, and Sydling Court in Dorset as well as the Malmesbury Estate at Hurn.

Neither he nor his agent were available for comment.

Graham Waterton, a senior partner at Strutt & Parker's Salisbury office, said: "I am able to confirm that proceedings have been issued and I am also able to confirm that they are being defended."

He added that proceedings were at an early stage and that it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.