Start of a nightmare.............thirteen years ago!

Planning

I along with most members of the public who have never had any involvement with the planning system as such,  always believed that  planning regulations and policies in this country were fair, impartial open and honest, being in place for members of the public who wish to develop their properties with justification and also to protect those whose lives and homes might be blighted by unauthorised developments by those who wish to abuse the planning system, it's regulations and so on..........My story has everything to do with planning.  It is a story that needs to be told hence I am starting my own blog at 73 years of age having suffered thirteen years of utter misery.  Carmarthenshire County Council forced me into a battle I did not foresee nor wanted. I was 60 years old when we embarked upon this horrendous journey.

August 2003

We had sold our property, and I now had to find another.   I looked on several websites that sold rural properties with land.  I  came across a cottage with six acres.  The photo of the cottage on the estate agents website didn't look too impressive, as the photos had been taken on a rainy day making the property look drab, but it was around the right price for our intended use, and so I made an appointment to view it.

Upon arriving at the wooden five bar gate to the property, I was struck by how much the entrance to the property resembled the nursery school my mother took me to when I would have been around three years old.  My mother had to ring an enormous bell, well it looked enormous to a three year old. We entered through a wrought iron gate and walked down a long but pretty drive bordered with grass trees and bushes.  The drive from the five bar gate down to the cottage we were now viewing was approx 50meters long, had centre grass and verges. At intervals in the verges there were a number of differing shrubs and trees.  The bottom of the driveway opened up into a much wider area for parking.  Beyond this area you could see the six acres of pasture divided into three separate fields.  This would be perfect for Minnie (my beautiful mare) our four pet woollies and the hens I intended to get. It was quite amazing.  It gave me a feeling of belonging.  It felt right.  We hadn't even seen inside the cottage itself yet, but I was already in love with it.  I remember thinking to myself, this was too good to be true.   Everything seemed to be perfect.  There had to be a blip.   No there was not. Ms. Anne Gifford. the then owner, was waiting to show us around. The cottage was not disappointing, it was everything I had longed it to be.   Pretty, homely, interesting, a cottage that most people would love to have.  It was as pretty inside as it was out. Lots of character, and a warm feeling. I knew that the property had not been on the market for long, with a potential buyer recently dropping out of their purchase. We never did find out the reason for this.  I recall asking Ms. Gifford what type of farming was carried out on on the neighbouring holding - and was advised they didn't farm, but they did breed horses.  I felt may be the reason for the other potential purchaser dropping out might have had something to do with farming activities, but clearly this was not so.   I felt totally comfortable with horses being around as we loved horses and one of the reasons for moving to Wales was to be able to keep my lovely horse with me. Smallholdings in Sussex were way out of our financial reach and we had friends here in Wales.
During our conversations with the seller it transpired that she had not long purchased this cottage herself.  In fact she had owned the property for less than a year.   I asked her why she was selling so soon after moving in.  She informed us that she had moved in with her partner and having split up she could not afford the upkeep on her own.  She told us how extremely upset she was at having to give up this cottage as she loved it here.  Not surprising as it was so pretty.   She showed us the barn which she had utilised and arranged in such a way for it to be used for her two horses and her dogs.   Within a meter of the far end of the barn there was the boundary sitting between this land and the neighbours paddock.  There was quite a steep bank, where one or two neglected trees were still struggling to grow but tied into the trees with baling twine, (commonly used for tying together hay bales), were two white rusting, old, battered and dented, double garage doors.  A massive eyesore!.  I remember thinking if we have this property, these will be the first things to go.  I remember asking her why they were there.  She told us that she had put them there to prevent her dogs from running up the bank and onto the neighbours land.  I'm not sure that I believed her explanation as it seemed extreme but who was I to question the behaviour of another, albeit these rusting heaps of metal would certainly not have stopped two excitable dogs from finding a way around them if they had wanted to wander onto to unknown and exciting new pastures.   I remember feeling that this lady was edgy and nervous, not at all relaxed.  I put it down to the fact that she really did not want to sell, but was being forced into it owing to her circumstances. Having viewed the cottage and garden, I realised there was a lot of work to be done outside, as the land and surrounding areas had been very neglected.  It would be an absolute pleasure to improve the garden areas during the spring and summer months, with the remainder of the winter (supposing the purchase went through smoothly) taken up with huge bonfires when clearing the mountains of rotting wooden fence posts and the like, clearly visible..   Everything we had dreamt of.  Great.
We spoke to the agent, and told him to go ahead.  We wanted it.

I was so excited.  We were about to move into our new home - a pretty smallholding in Carmarthenshire South Wales.  My beautiful horse being one of the main reasons we wanted a home with land.  We have a love of animals, and as well as my horse and her four woolly friends Sally, Coco, Twinks and Hilly the sheep, along with three gorgeous dogs and two adorable cats.  Our plans were to apply to Carmarthen Council to build a cattery and as we'd inherited a solid barn as well, we wanted to make enquiries about turning that into a couple of holiday lets. We moved in lock stock and barrel just before Christmas 2003.  As our smallholding is in a particularly rural area with the smallholding adjacent to us being a 'farm' as indicated on our searches, we were expecting a relatively quiet and peaceful Christmas.  But all was not so.  Living in a town over the Christmas period would have been quieter than living in this very pretty location.

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