Karen Thomas's letter........January 2005.......Our nightmare begins.........


Corrupt planning led to changes in our lives - forever.

When we had bought this pretty holding in Carmarthenshire one year ago, we didn't have any idea of the relationship, that was to become apparent, between our neighbours and the local authority's planning department.  This relationship was to bestow upon us years of untold stress, worry and heartache, the like of which that we'd never experienced before in our lifetime.

I'd had no cross words with the Thomases in the one year I had lived here alone, even though they had made my life intolerable.  Whenever our paths crossed, I had always maintained a friendly persona.  I would see them regularly on their yard as I went out, as their daily chores began with their lorry drivers arriving at around 6.0 a.m.  As their office was situated on their yard area, (a portacabin) their day revolved around the office - the haulage business - the stables and the horses. 

Karen Thomas's letter arrived through the post, and I knew immediately when I opened it, it was from her as it was on headed paper.  (See previous post).  I could only bear to scan it as I knew it was going to be deeply unpleasant and disturbing, as it followed on from my rubbish bags being cut, my post mysteriously scattered on the ground and the barbed wire appearing.  The letter sent shivers through me, as was intended.  I felt sick to the pit of my stomach.  I knew instantly that we were going to suffer an even more miserable existence than the year we had already gone through.   Her inexorable changes to our right of way were going to be devastating.  It was obvious from this sarcastic and intimidating letter, life as I had planned was over.  I wanted to pack our belongings and leave, but we had nowhere to go and how would we survive.  How could I continue living here on my own.  Eddie was going to have to give up his business in Sussex much sooner than we had planned, and how was this going to affect our future plans.

I remembered Mr. Ls. letter to the council, notifying them that the hauliers had threatened to alter the right of way if he didn't stop complaining about their operations.  Mr. L. had lived here for twenty six years, but had been lucky enough to sell and move before they'd had the opportunity to fulfil their threats.  Because I had made my concerns known to Carmarthen Council's Enforcement Manager Mr. Brian Canning, we were going to experience this threat being put into practice.  We were not going to be able to move as these reconstructions were imminent.  If this was an attempt to drive us out, it wasn't going to achieve that aim.  In reality these changes to our once pretty right of way were going to prevent any chance of us being able to sell, and were going to trap us here.

Right of Way Summer 2004

 

The Right of Way was approximately twenty meters in length.  Not very long, but very steep.  It was a tarmacadam drive,  approximately fifteen feet wide, with grass verges and grass down the centre. It was the continuation of our private driveway which led directly onto the highway.   It had a hedgerow on one side and post and rail fencing on the other.  Daffodils grew in the verges.  There was a gate either side of the right of way which pulled across making a safe crossing for horses from the neighbours paddock on one side to the large field on the other.  The majority of the horses numbering approximately thirty, lived out in the large field and in the year I had lived here had never seen horses being moved in this way.

Field on right hand side of Right of Way

If two extra gates were going to be put across the Right of Way, and horses left to roam around, how on earth were we going to be able to come and go.  It was going to be impossible.  I couldn't imagine trying to drive through three gates, having to unlock and then lock two of them, whilst manoeuvring several horses out of the way.  Coming home would be every much of a nightmare as going out would be.  Imagining this scenario, I realised I couldn't possibly negotiate such an obstacle course.  It was a hopeless situation something we had no control over.  We most certainly could not sell up and go now. 

Throughout the following week as I went out,  I at first noticed a few Motorway Crash Barriers lying on the verge at the top of the driveway which then grew into piles as the week went on. There also appeared a line of orange paint along the driveway's grass verge which I was later to discover were markers pinpointing water pipes.  The neighbours had it all planned but we just didn't know when!

I was feeling extremely anxious and fearful of what was about to happen, and knew I wouldn't be able to face whatever they had planned, on my own.  For that last week in January I couldn't sleep, dreading what the neighbours had in store and what they were going to do to our only way in and out.

Each and every morning of that last week of January, before the reconstructions began, Andrew Thomas deliberately woke me at around 6.00a.m. by driving his tractor up and down his paddock, each time coming within a couple of meters of my window. He would then attack our right of way in the same manner.  This time of the morning and still being dark made it all the more alarming. The noise was inescapable and was contrived.  The feeling of being totally alone and isolated became overwhelming.   I had to ask Eddie to come up to Wales as this behaviour was putting such fear into me.  I wasn't sleeping, spending the night anticipating what each day was going to bring.  I knew there was no prospect in the local police helping as WPC McWilliams had already told me that if I chose to live next to a farm then I should expect tractor noises. 
If the neighbours intended to make me afraid of them they were succeeding.  It was both depressing and very frightening.  The response from the police made matters worse - psychologically.

The week before!

 Sunday 30th. January - 8.00a.m.    

We had no idea of when the neighbours were going to carry out their threat.   However, on this day, a gang of men headed by Andrew and Karen Thomas entered our R.O.W. with a very large tractor which completely blocked the driveway - the bucket on the front was loaded with huge sturdy posts.   Being on our own - two pensioners - looking up towards this spectacle from our small cottage, felt very threatening.  We obviously couldn't go out now even if  we wanted to or needed to, as the entire driveway was blocked with men and equipment to reconstruct the drive.  They began dismantling the old post and rail fence.

This was to be the Thomas's revenge against my telephone calls to Brian Canning - our pathetic attempt in asking Carmarthen Council why they were allowing this industrial business to operate without planning, and alerting them to the hugely damaging effect it was having upon our lives.  This was to be the consequence!!

I felt sick to my stomach.  I had never experienced such an overwhelming feeling of intimidation and threat as I was feeling now.  I felt so helpless and vulnerable against this obvious vendetta. We were defenceless. All we could do was watch this malicious vandalism taking place throughout the entire day, as the gang of individuals hammered in vast numbers of posts down each side of the driveway, and erected onto the posts crash barriers, two high.  The centre grass and verges had vanished under the huge tyres of the tractor used for the changes to our entrance.    I was distraught and inconsolable, and altho I couldn't eat a thing, felt sick to the pit of my stomach nonetheless.  My eyes were swollen with crying and Eddie was extremely concerned at my mental state.  We were totally on our own, feeling imprisoned in our little cottage with no-one to help us.

Reconstruction to our Right Of Way 2005

By the time they had finished, the pretty driveway was no more.  They had transformed it into an ugly tunnel of metal. There was no grass left, only mud. They had narrowed the drive from fifteen feet wide to just nine feet.  They had run down each side many exceedingly sturdy posts, and attached to them two rows high motorway crash barriers. The two gates that had been threatened in the letter had not been erected yet.  How could two people carry out such vicious acts to people who they'd  already made victims of, to their own anti social behaviour. This was the beginning of a reign of intimidation and and threatening activity that was to last for years.
Andrew Thomas would call this our 'metal enclosure'. 

They had only just begun.............