October 04 .......  Off to Oz.

Oh how I had been looking forward to this holiday to visit my son and his wife on the Gold Coast. This was the break I desperately needed.  The stress of worrying about our future here and whether or not we would be forced into selling up, was taking up all my thoughts.  This holiday would be just the therapy I needed.  A whole month of not having to worry, just enjoying myself.  My sister and I had the most wonderful holiday.  I loved Australia and didn't want to come back.  I certainly understood why my son loved it so much.

 November 04

I came back to cold miserable weather and nothing had changed next door.  The haulage yard was still operating and I was still being woken up at 6.00a.m. from the noise of drivers arriving, car doors being slammed, followed by lorries being driven out. My first weekend back was spent listening to welding, maintenance on HGVs, generators in use, cutting of scrap, a JCB creating a din in the quarry, just business as usual next door.  If I had wanted to listen to industrial noises each and every day I wouldn't have bought this pretty cottage in the countryside!  If someone wanted to make their neighbours unhappy and to ultimately drive them out then this would be the way to do it. I was unhappy to be back to this.

The bank the Thomases were building adjacent to us was getting higher and higher.  Were they hiding something, it seemed such an odd thing to do.  It was a year ago that Andrew Thomas had apologised to me for the noise he was making in creating it, saying it was to stop horses escaping!!

However, great news - the plans for the cattery had been given approval!  I'd also accepted the quote from a person who was going to plant hedgerows for me as I wanted to create four paddocks and to encourage wildlife, something important to me.  I was having doubts about the conversion to the barn due to the goings on next door though.   During another visit from Ceri Davies I voiced my concerns again about the neighbours businesses and that it was worrying due to the money we were about to sink in to the barn conversion..  He told me that Karen Thomas had wanted to put in objections to our plans for the cattery but he had advised her not to, as they weren't valid.  This was a real shock as a cattery wasn't going to create any disturbance and wouldn't even be visible, and she hadn't given me any inkling that she wasn't happy about it when I had told her what we wanted to do.

Knowing now that Karen Thomas had not wanted us to have the cattery, plus having to put up with the noise from lorries, the constant quarrying, worrying about whether or not to carry on with our plans for the barn conversion, it was difficult to stay positive.   It really was decision time.  Do we try to sell up and move, or do we now write to the council and attempt to get something done about our terrible situation.  We knew it would be very difficult to sell as the history of the problems here were already on record.  I decided to meet again with my M.P. and he suggested he write to the council in the hope that with his involvement the council would help.   Now it was official that we had complained.  Up to now I had only spoken to the council's Enforcement Manager Brian Canning, on the telephone.  What will the neighbours do.  Hopefully they would see it as our legitimate right to make our concerns known, as their activities were heavily impacting upon every aspect of our lives.  Surely they would understand, as they knew two families had already been very upset with them and moved because of their activities, which would surely help them accept that they were creating problems for anyone living in our small cottage.  It wasn't unreasonable, or so I thought.   The letter was sent to Mr. Eifion Bowen, who was Head of Planning.  I felt confident that as he was already aware of the many complaints about this haulage business, the quarrying, the maintenance on HGVs, and the obvious violent nature of the Thomases, that he would put a stop to all of it.  After all, four local people had been seriously threatened by these hauliers and the council wouldn't allow this to happen to anyone else.

December 04

Since moving into this cottage, we had always put our four rubbish bags on the grass verge at the top of our driveway, for the bin men to collect, as it was easier to do that, than expect them to come down the long driveway and carry them back up.  I had a hospital appointment this particularly cold and wintry day.   (A carpenter had been fitting a wardrobe for me and I'd managed to fill three bags with paper and wood shavings left over from the work he had finished).  I put these three bags plus my rubbish bag in the boot of my car and dropped them off at the top of my drive as usual.  Upon returning from the hospital, driving down the road toward my home, I noticed that all around the top of my drive, rubbish, strewn everywhere.  I was quite taken aback and wondered how this had happened as it had never happened before.  The rubbish littered the entire length of my driveway.  I immediately knew that my neighbour had done this.  There couldn't be any other explanation.  It certainly wasn't birds, as the rubbish that was inside the bags, mainly consisted of paper and wood shavings. The entire contents of all four bags was strewn around the roadside verge where I had left them, down our Right of Way, and the bags themselves had been thrown over my gate, leaving more debris to be blown around on the inside of my gate and onto my garden area.  My stomach churned, and I felt sick.  I was horrified, as I immediately knew this was a message, a message that my complaint via my M.P. had kick started, possible intimidation.  With the knowledge I had of my neighbours intimidation and threats to others, I felt scared.

I rang a friend straight away, and told her what had happened.  With Eddie still working in Sussex, I felt afraid and completely vulnerable. I didn't have any security cameras nor special security locks, unlike the neighbours who apparently, according to Karen Thomas, had £6.000 of security installed at Blaenpant!   I had no such things.  My friend advised me to log this with the police.  Although I couldn't prove it was my neighbour, it was pretty obvious to me it was, given the history of the bullying of the previous two owners by them. The last thing I wanted was to involve the police.  Having discussed it at length with my friend, and given that I was living here on my own, together with the fact that the neighbours didn't think twice about walking onto my property uninvited, as they had done several times already to round up their escaping horses, I decided I should ring the police.  I explained to the officer the knowledge I had acquired over the year we had lived here.   I explained that my M.P. had recently written to the council, and that I believed it was my neighbours reaction to this letter.  The officer asked me if I would like him to pay them a visit. I told him I didn't wish for this to go any further, I just wanted it logged in case of any further repercussions.  I told him we had not had any arguments thus far with our neighbours, as I didn't see very much of them, only when I was coming and going.   I said they were always very busy with their lorry business, with their horses, or in their office.  I only ever saw them if they were working around their stables or on their yard.  I rang Eddie and told him what had happened, and that I was now feeling very nervous and vulnerable. It was unnerving to say the least, living here on my own.  What a terrible thing to do to someone. I could understand annoyance, but to physically take action against someone, sent fear through me.

Xmas

As well as the terrible worry of this incident, the noise and disturbance from the neighbours operations was getting even worse.  The quarrying was almost daily.  A few hours one day and a few hours another. As well as the dragging down of boulders, the loading of the rock onto lorries was exceedingly noisy.  Mr. L who had previously lived here had reported this activity to the council, as well as another local resident Mr. B.   Mr. Bowen Head of Planning was clearly aware this was a regular activity but had done nothing about it.  We had a short break from it Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but the following day it was hell.  They were quarrying again.  Bearing in mind the quarry was just fifty meters from our small cottage and us being at a lower level, the sound of jack hammers into rock doesn't need any explanation.  It was horrendous.  I just cried.   One whole year of nothing but worry and now a feeling of being under threat.  What a horrid Christmas.

This was to be our retirement home.  The plans we had of a cattery to give us a small income, to keep us active and interested in life were ebbing away.  Mr. Bowen's response to my M.P. was as defensive of my neighbours, as was that of Brian Cannings.   I was quite shocked, as so many others had told him about Blaenpant's activities, as had two previous owners of our property. I could not understand this defence of something that was plain for all to see.  It was worryingly obvious now that the council had no intention whatsoever of doing anything about these unauthorised businesses, and weren't at all concerned about our lives and the effect all this was having upon us, nor the value or saleability of our lovely cottage.  I knew something was terribly wrong, and had a strong feeling of foreboding.  I knew now that we'd made a big mistake in buying this pretty place.