Late February 04.  What next..................


I wanted to discuss our plans for the cattery with the council and asked if a planning officer would visit. I also wanted to know if there would be any objections from the council with regard to the barn we intended to convert for two holiday lets.   C. Davies (planning officer) duly visited.  It was an informative meeting, he liked the barn and advised we would be required to re-roof it with slate if we went ahead.  During his visit, he asked us how we got on with our neighbours!  I was a little taken aback as to why he was asking, as I found it rather an odd question.  I said that I hadn't actually met them properly yet, but they seemed friendly and we would wave to each other as we went in and out.  He said "did you know there have been a lot of problems here"?  Of course I didn't as I wouldn't have gone ahead with the purchase had I known.  Clearly this is why he was asking.  I found this to be really worrying, as it served to confirm my creeping suspicions that our neighbours dislike of our seller had led her to move, and she had probably lied to us regarding her reasons for selling.  It also made me aware that the noise and disturbance I was experiencing could be the very reason why there had been problems here.  This was not something one would wish to hear having only recently bought your dream home.
Mr. Davies went on to say that the neighbours were intending to put in permission for an agricultural shed, that it was huge, but that I shouldn't worry about it as they most definitely wouldn't get it.  I asked where it would situated, but Mr. Davies was adamant that they would not get permission as he was the planning officer who would be carrying out the appraisal if they put in for planning and he would not be recommending approval!! He said "we know what they are doing and they are not agricultural".  I agreed there was no farming only horses and lorries and told him about the noise.   He said I might consider contacting Mr. Brian Canning the Enforcement Manager and talk to him about it.

From haylage bales to these containers.  View from my windows.

A friend of mine and her daughter had been staying with me for a couple of weeks.  Upon arriving home from a shopping spree, Minnie (my mare) was very fretful.   Naturally I went to her to calm her down and to find out what was wrong.  It was then I noticed hoof prints everywhere and the land had been churned up from what was most certainly, more than one pony.  There clearly had been an incident with ponies on my land but what had happened was a mystery.  I fully expected a phone message or note explaining something, but there was nothing.   Someone must have collected them and taken them away but left no indication of what had taken place.   This concerned me hugely, as it left me with a worry as to who owned these ponies and what kind of person would walk onto someone elses property and leave no apology or explanation as to what had taken place.   My friend said she was concerned too about this incident and also about the industrial noises coming from the farm next door, and that it really shouldn't be happening.  In fact, most people visiting would now pass comment about the industrial noises, the constant clearing of rock from the old, supposed disused quarry, and why it was happening from what was allegedly a 'farm'. 
In view of the ongoing noise from lorries and maintenance of them, friends were saying I should ring the local authority.  This was not something I wanted to do, and I tried to remain optimistic that all would improve over time.

Trying to stay positive.

In the far corner of one of our fields there was a very small area designated and labelled a SSSI site.  My curiosity led me to ring Countryside Council for Wales who designate such areas, to enquire about it.   I spoke to Mr. Nigel Stringer who said when he was passing he would call in and see me, which he did a couple of weeks later.  I was even more perturbed about my neighbours after his visit,  as whilst he was here, he too made a point in asking me how I got on with my neighbours.  I told him the same as I told C. Davies.  Nigel Stringer went further in what he was prepared to say.   He said there had been much bad feeling between these two holdings.  He was aware the last owner who sold to us had only been here a very short while, (a few months in fact) and that the owners before her, who had lived here for twenty six years had had many rows with the new owners of the neighbouring holding over their activities.   He said they were conservationists, and that this too, conflicted with the owners of the neighbouring Blaenpant, who were not.  This was really disturbing and alarm bells were now going off.   It would seem that in the two and a half years these people had owned Blaenpant,  two families from this property had sold up and left following some nasty confrontations.  Are we going to be third time lucky.....?

Calm before the storm

How distressing to find out in these few weeks I had been living here, from both Ceri Davies and Nigel Stringer that the owners of Blaenpant had been in conflict with my two predecessors who had both sold up.  That my neighbour disliked my seller to such a degree he had tied scrap metal into trees to intimidate her - unexplained horses have run amok on my land and my fencing had been trampled from mystery invaders!  How are we going to fare with our neighbours?