The ancient 'rights' bought by Leeds residents

Leeds City Council collected hundreds of mini payments in the 1980s to cover the cost of ‘rights’ linked to ancient city laws.

Some of these were rights of passage, wayleaves and the right to lay cables and drains.

Another was the ‘right of light’ which was held by successive owners of a house in west Leeds prompting a yearly bill from the authority of just 15 pence.

That was the price which had to be paid by the owners of Rombalds Place in Armley since 1936 to maintain a sweeping view over parkland and ensure the council did not build on the land and obstruct the vista.

Arthur Bulman, whose mum Doreen lived in the house, said: “I wonder how many other bills the council send out for these amounts – and how much it costs.”

One official in Leeds City Council’s finance department told the YEP in August 1984: “We have hundreds of these to deal with. Most of them go back for years.

"Many of them are uneconomic to to collect and cost us more than we recover. But it is a legal requirement and it cannot be avoided.”