2007    Friends step in.......



The CEO and his Head of Planning might have put me on a gagging order but friends took up the gauntlet and continued advising them of the shenanigans and malpractice which was continuing to be ignored. 

The council had not achieved the silence they so desperately wanted as they still had to answer letters and questions from people who were not on their archaic policy. 

It would have been far easier for the council to admit their failings, follow procedures and planning regulations and take some form of action to curtail the industrial operations which should never have been allowed to begin in the first instance, but how could they; this would be an admission that officers were deliberately failing in their statutory duties, favouring a particular individual which according to their own Code of Conduct is corrupt practice.  Very serious. 

To give 'favour' to an individual is to be 'corrupt'.  That is written into officers Code of Conduct.  If  it is not favour when an officer is overlooking and assisting in wilful breaches of planning regultions, then what is it? 

Part of Officers Code of conduct       

13.0 Corruption

13.1 Employees must be aware that it is a serious criminal offence for them corruptly to receive or give any gift, loan, fee, reward or advantage for doing, or not doing anything or showing favour, or disfavour, to any person in their official capacity. Allegations of this nature will be investigated/dealt with in accordance with the Council’s disciplinary procedure.

Head of Planning E Bowen's rehearsed phrase would always be.....    a..... there is no evidence of haulage or anything else....... b.......I only saw one lorry......c.......I didn't see anything that was shown on your video footage  or  even if there were three or four lorries there , it wouldn't be expedient to take any action....

It is unbelievable!

It was perfectly plain for all to realise that shady deals had taken place and from that there is no going back.  During a chance meeting with E Bowen I pointed out to him that it was quite apparent he had taken a road of no return.      The deceit and flagrant lies coming from this council's officers could only be attributed to 'special arrangements'. 

On his site visits to Blaenpant E Bowen couldn't see any sign of haulage operations even tho our filmed evidence proved otherwise. He couldn't see thirty coloured horses in a shed which would have warranted a change of use  - he couldn't see any signs of maintenance on HGVs even though our filmed evidence showed otherwise - he couldn't see signs of quarrying even tho our filmed evidence showed otherwise, and according to him, the scrapped vehicles and other pieces of junk on another area of agricultural land was all 'agricultural equipment'.  

The Head of Planning was carrying out site visits to this area (see picture) due to many complaints of a burgeoning scrap site and witnessed this huge pile of material being laid.   Instead of enforcing against the obvious, he just turned another blind eye allowing it to be laid as a hardstand on agricultural land; no questions asked of the landowner.  

This was agricultural land adjacent to a Special Site of Scientific Interest and undoubtedly required planning permission.  The evidence of scrap was unmistakable and given the council's own files housing many complaints of haulage, quarrying and lack of agriculture this required urgent action from the council's Head of Planning.  

Beginnings of a scrap yard.

He wrote - these pieces of metal were going to be 'pens for livestock'.    I personally don't believe these flimsy pieces of metal would hold any form of farm livestock and whats more there was no livestock at Blaenpant as he was fully aware. 

He wrote -  a scrapped fire engine was agricultural equipment because............."it can be used to hose down a yard area".  I had to point out to him that to use a fire engine to hose down a yard, it's tanks would have to be filled first and foremost by the 'very tap' on the yard, (unless you are going to attach the fire engine to your kitchen tap) which is normally used for hosing down the yard!!     He wrote the scrapped flo gas containers were for catching rainwater.   Again I had to point out that this would have required literally horizontal rain for these containers to catch rainwater, as their only small opening was at one end, not on top!! 

It is such shocking deceitful underhandedness coming from a Head of the Planning Department and warrants serious investigation.  His cover-up for all he allowed to take place is in my view criminal conduct.    Somebody else had to suffer for these abuses of the system and it was us!!!    For a supposedly intelligent individual to be spouting such utter nonsense proves beyond any doubt cover-up and duplicity.

A growing scrap yard

As we were now on the council's gagging policy 'reviews' should have been regularly taking place in order that we were not being treated disproportionately and prejudicially.   We absolutely were. We had valid complaints as borne out by two former owners of our property who had also complained about these terrible disturbances from Blaenpant and who had subsequently been driven out by severe intimidation and harassment.   As well as that several others had also complained to the council, before we had ever heard of Pantycastell Fach and Blaenpant.   It is clear that our complaints and evidence deserved action.  What was also clear was the council's lies and deceit.  We were being treated with utter contempt by this authority.

A Fresh Issue

My point of contact was Dave Gilbert (Director of Regeneration) who was ignoring all correspondence fro me.  However, according to CCCs gagging policy 'fresh issues' must be addressed.

Following two weeks of horrendous noise and the obvious creating of yet another very large hardstand - this time facing us, I wrote to my sole point of contact as I was deeply concerned as to what this area was going to be used for given that this was an unauthorised haulage yard with HGVs in abundance and zero agricuture.  I duly informed him of the engineering works and asked if planning permissions had been obtained.     No reply!      These works continued.  Two weeks later I reminded Dave Gilbert I had written to him on a 'fresh issue' and could he please respond.    No reply!.  This hardstand was by now practically finished and it was a substantial area and yet another eyesore for us.   I wrote again to my sole point of contact - the Director of Regeneration Dave Gilbert reminding him I had now informed him twice of this obvious 'fresh issue' and that according to his own policy it must be addressed and I needed to know if planning permission had been obtained.   His response was typical of how a corrupt organisation operates. He totally ignored the subject of my correspondence and simply wrote  'all issues had been addressed and there would be no further responses on this matter'. thus leaving me with unanswered, valid, questions and clearly this huge hardstand did not have the planning permission it obviously required.  Another 'favour'.

I tried asking him to elaborate on his ambiguous answer, but of course he wouldn't nor couldn't.  Honesty is not something one can expect from this council.     The corrupt planning continues unabated and unimpeded for my neighbour and we are watching on as our property becomes ever more blighted.

Another yard area with no planning consent.

Dave Gilbert should hang his head in shame - he is part of this culture of deceit and cover-up - and paid handsomely for being what he is!

(He went on to receive an OBE and became a member of the advisory board for the
Port Talbot Waterfront Enterprise Zone).

He was criticised heavily by the Ombudsman for his part in this charade.

The Ombudsman's advisor said (in report) 'the fact that enforcement action is discretionary and used only when it is expedient, should not be taken as condoning the wilful breaches of plannng control'. 

The life we had planned was in ruins and we were now existing in a most miserable, depressing and hopeless life that officers of this council had forced upon us, with no escape.   The abiding question must be...'why is this council's officers aiding and abetting so many wilful breaches of planning?


Lessons must be learned by all who knew our lives were in tatters due to their council's officers wilfully aiding and abetting a plethora of dodgy planning abuses.