As The Herald reports today, shortly before Cllr Emlyn Dole (Plaid) unexpectedly became council leader, promising to guard the heritage of Carmarthenshire and bring in a new era of transparency, he became embroiled in an interesting planning hiccup down on the family farm, Capel Ifan, in Pontyberem.
A planning application was approved in 2012, in Cllr Dole's wife's name, to convert a double barn at the farm, into a hairdressing salon and holiday lets.
According to the officer's report, the farm could trace it's roots back several hundred years and "was recorded as belonging to the Dun Lee family in 1613 and Rudd family later in the 17th Century, so the barns have some historic interest" so the structure of the barn and its unique charm was to be preserved. According to Dyfed Archeology one of the barns was four hundred years old.
Work began on the conversion but at some point as the barn went from this;
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to this;
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..as the work continued, it eventually drew the attention of planning enforcement as it did not comply with the original permission, and the conditions had been ignored. There was now precious little left of the unique charm, historic setting, or anything else.
To try appease enforcement, another application was submitted which was largely based on new build.
This time the planning officers recommended to the committee, upon which Cllr Dole sat (with, I add, interests duly declared) that the application should be refused.
The new proposals were completely out of character from the original buildings and environment, and clearly against council planning policy.
Then the usual happened, a site visit was called for and last November the Magical Mystery Tour headed off to Pontyberem. The convivial group returned to the warmth of Chamber in the afternoon and, true to form, granted permission, contrary to the recommendation.
The Herald has spoken to the agent, a Mr Davies, who acted for the original application. He was not involved in the subsequent developments and is not best pleased that his name still appears on the later documents.
He also said that the structural survey which identified the barns as structurally sound was ignored to 'facilitate demolition'. Cllr Dole, or rather his wife, had argued that the demolition became unavoidable, but the agent is clear that he never saw a second survey to that effect.
The Herald asked Cllr Dole, or should I say Reverend Dole (for he is also a Preacher) to answer the allegations made regarding the planning process.
They asked whether permission had been granted for demolition, he replied that "demolition was undertaken with regards to safety and structural integrity of the building". A simple 'no' would have been a more honest answer.
He would not confirm the identity of the agent, or any changes of agent, just that the information was 'online'.
He also denied allegations that grants had been received 'in relation to works at the property'.
Mr Davies, the original agent sums up this very whiffy situation ;
“A lot of people are aware that that this development is totally against council policy. People are coming up to me and asking me how he got permission when they can’t. When I tell them it’s nothing to do with me, they point out that I am still shown as the agent. I was still shown as the agent when it went back to planning in February 2015.
"Judging by the evidence, it appears Emlyn Dole is not playing the game everyone else in the county has to play, which is going through due process.
“When I see in the papers he is bringing transparency, it makes me ill.”
A local resident also spoke to the Herald;
“It looks like one rule for him and one for the rest. Everyone round here calls it ‘Southfork’ because that’s what it looks like.”
In my opinion, the whole thing stinks.
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The article is not yet online but the Carmarthenshire and Llanelli Herald websites can be found here and here and also on Facebook.
A planning application was approved in 2012, in Cllr Dole's wife's name, to convert a double barn at the farm, into a hairdressing salon and holiday lets.
According to the officer's report, the farm could trace it's roots back several hundred years and "was recorded as belonging to the Dun Lee family in 1613 and Rudd family later in the 17th Century, so the barns have some historic interest" so the structure of the barn and its unique charm was to be preserved. According to Dyfed Archeology one of the barns was four hundred years old.
Work began on the conversion but at some point as the barn went from this;
to this;
..as the work continued, it eventually drew the attention of planning enforcement as it did not comply with the original permission, and the conditions had been ignored. There was now precious little left of the unique charm, historic setting, or anything else.
To try appease enforcement, another application was submitted which was largely based on new build.
This time the planning officers recommended to the committee, upon which Cllr Dole sat (with, I add, interests duly declared) that the application should be refused.
The new proposals were completely out of character from the original buildings and environment, and clearly against council planning policy.
Then the usual happened, a site visit was called for and last November the Magical Mystery Tour headed off to Pontyberem. The convivial group returned to the warmth of Chamber in the afternoon and, true to form, granted permission, contrary to the recommendation.
The Herald has spoken to the agent, a Mr Davies, who acted for the original application. He was not involved in the subsequent developments and is not best pleased that his name still appears on the later documents.
He also said that the structural survey which identified the barns as structurally sound was ignored to 'facilitate demolition'. Cllr Dole, or rather his wife, had argued that the demolition became unavoidable, but the agent is clear that he never saw a second survey to that effect.
The Herald asked Cllr Dole, or should I say Reverend Dole (for he is also a Preacher) to answer the allegations made regarding the planning process.
They asked whether permission had been granted for demolition, he replied that "demolition was undertaken with regards to safety and structural integrity of the building". A simple 'no' would have been a more honest answer.
He would not confirm the identity of the agent, or any changes of agent, just that the information was 'online'.
He also denied allegations that grants had been received 'in relation to works at the property'.
“A lot of people are aware that that this development is totally against council policy. People are coming up to me and asking me how he got permission when they can’t. When I tell them it’s nothing to do with me, they point out that I am still shown as the agent. I was still shown as the agent when it went back to planning in February 2015.
"Judging by the evidence, it appears Emlyn Dole is not playing the game everyone else in the county has to play, which is going through due process.
“When I see in the papers he is bringing transparency, it makes me ill.”
A local resident also spoke to the Herald;
“It looks like one rule for him and one for the rest. Everyone round here calls it ‘Southfork’ because that’s what it looks like.”
In my opinion, the whole thing stinks.
The article is not yet online but the Carmarthenshire and Llanelli Herald websites can be found here and here and also on Facebook.