The former presenter of One Man and His Dog says that he plans to report the National Trust to the Charity Commission over its decision to split up High Yewdale Farm, at Coniston.

Robin Page said he planned to complain to the commission, which regulates charities throughout England and Wales, that the trust had disregarded the will of Beatrix Potter when its Board of Trustees voted to split the farm.

The children's author left the historic hill farm with its flock of hefted Herdwick sheep to the NT in 1943, along with 14 other Lake District farms.

Mr Page, who is also a farmer and is an elected member of the National Trust's Council, told The Westmorland Gazette: "I think the National Trust is not fulfilling the wishes of Beatrix Potter. As a donor her wishes were quite unambiguous. She wanted the farms to stay as they were. It is an affront to anybody who has given property and money with conditions attached (to the NT) that they have taken this decision."

The trust's highest body, the Board of Trustees, voted to split up the historic hill farm last week after being asked to review the decision by the organisation's elected council.

The board made the decision on the grounds that reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy had made High Yewdale unviable as a working farm after its last tenant Johnny Birkett retired in October.

But the move to amalgamate the farm with its three neighbours, and hand over its flock of hefted Herdwick sheep to another farmer, has triggered anger.

See The Westmorland Gazette for the full story.