For 28 days each year, businessman Ian Casselden has been allowed to use a paddock next to his home as a helipad.

He would leave in his £100,000, three-seat Enstrom helicopter, flying to appointments across the country in a fraction of the time it would take by car.

His neighbours, however, were not happy about the noise coming from the five acre-paddock attached to his £750,000 home in Isherwood, Battle.

They said the 'helipad' was too close to other homes.

Now council officials have grounded Mr Casselden by removing his right to use his land to take off and land.

Married father-of-five Mr Casselden tried to have the decision overturned yesterday at Bexhill Town Hall but Rother District Council stuck firm.

Councillors agreed that a direction under Article 4 of the Town and Country Planning Order meant he could not use the plot, which falls in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

However, under its terms it states a local authority is liable to pay compensation for any expenditure, loss or damage to Mr Casselden, who is the director of several companies, including a telecoms firm.

He could be entitled to a payment of tens of thousands of pounds from the council, which this year set an above-inflation 7.4 per cent council tax increase.

If he is unable to use his normal landing spot, about three miles away near Hastings, he cannot fly his helicopter.

Mr Casselden, who clocks up 150 flying hours and 17,000 miles a year, said: "People may view my helicopter as a plaything but to me it is a tool.

"I am able to get to the Midlands in an hour and five minutes. It is noisy but not hugely. The helicopter produces about 60 decibels whereas a lawnmower produces up to 80.

"By not allowing me my right to take off and land on my own paddock, the local authority has exposed itself to a compensation claim of a considerable figure."

Mr Casselden, a pilot for four years, has faced a wealth of opposition over his helipad. Battle Town Council and Sedlescombe Parish Council opposed it, saying it was too close to houses.

He has tried to gain permission to use a neighbouring private airstrip at Spilstead Farm, Sedlescombe, but efforts to overturn a ban on helicopters landing there were rejected following opposition from homeowners.

The nearest landing spot for Mr Casselden is at Gatwick, where it would cost him £1,500.

Rother councillor Suzanne Williams said noise and disturbance caused by the helicopter was excessive and continuous.

She added: "There are plenty of proper sites where this activity could go on and not in a residential area."