Anger over temporary timber home application for valley
A new row has broken out in a Bath hamlet over a planning application for a temporary timber home.
Golden Valley Paddocks, which owns the land at Woolley, has submitted the latest planning application in the hope of eventually getting a permanent house built there.
But the firm, which is excavating the land with the long-term aim of farming alpacas, has angered residents who say it is scarring the landscape.
It has already put up ten temporary sheds on the land to house 10,000 chickens but these will now be used for ducks, which the firm says will be reared in a free range way.
The firm says accommodation is needed on the land to allow someone to keep watch over the alpacas, which can be worth up to £5,000 each.
The growth of the chicken sheds, a mobile home and drainage work at the firm's Woolley Farm has concerned residents because the area is subject to special rules which mean permission is needed for many developments which are not normally covered by the planning system.
The Save Woolley Valley Action Group (SWVAG), which opposes development at the farm, has also accused council planners of being too soft on the landowner.
The council has previously refused permission for a house at Woolley Farm site and has also forced the firm to reverse excavation work.
But residents say other enforcement action, including the removal of a mobile home, promised by the council has still not taken place and Kieran Higgins of the group said it was considering taking legal action against the authority.
He said: "Due to the fast moving state of events and numerous changes GVP has proposed, and as B&NES planning enforcement has clearly not executed its own enforcement position in the past 11 months, SWVAG is considering its position legally on the entire site and lack of due diligence of B&NES planning enforcement."
But agent Marc Willis of Golden Valley Paddocks, which bought the farm nearly three years ago said there was no outstanding enforcement action. And he encouraged residents who were concerned with what he was doing on the land to talk to him directly.
He said: "They are not talking to us. If there are particular issues they want to discuss they are more than welcome to do that with us.
"There has been an enforcement notice which we have fully complied with and we have cooperated very closely with planning and enforcement officers and as far as we are aware there are no outstanding enforcement issues." The council did not respond to SWVAG other than to say that the latest application was being considered.
6 Comments
by Robert Craven, Woolley
Friday, April 01 2011, 12:27PM
“Can someone notify the Council that we now have the addition of a Silo, Polytunnel and Shed without planning permission (again). What does this say?”
by Paul Eke, Bath
Tuesday, March 29 2011, 12:00AM
“It's very rich of Marc Willis to play the innocent card by saying 'They are not talking to us' - I don't recall him, or anyone at GVP, talking to the local residents prior to carrying out any of the unauthorised works that have been carried out, which have all been applied for retrospectively and refused.
It is worth reiterating that the two directors behind GVP are not farmers but work in financial services and as an electrician respectively (per publicly available information) and that Marc Willis is helping a numerous other people around the UK to set up alpaca farms seemingly as a way to circumvent planning law.
Come on B&NES, wake up and put a stop to this before one of the most, if not the most, protected area around Bath is forever lost and you lose all credibility.”
by Julian Rowe, Redcar, North Yorkshire
Monday, March 28 2011, 2:23PM
“The actions of GVP are debased and as Toby Jones, Woolley Lane suggest are extremely dubious, as well as highly damaging. These actions would be useless if the appropriate authorities took the appropriate actions for bogus, irresponsible or underhand commercial activity. However BANES appear unable or unwilling to act. This unfortunate situation only compounds the considerable woes of the local residents already under severe stress from the reckless behaviour of so-called Golden Valley Paddocks.
What a mess!”
by Toby Jones, Woolley Lane
Sunday, March 27 2011, 9:53PM
“Golden Valley Paddocks is a company where the main shareholder is a financial adviser. They aim to buy land cheap due to restrictions such as AONB etc., twist the rules to suit what they want, bully planning to give them what they want and then either sell the land for development or develop it themselves. They are not farmers, a little pretend farming may be a temporary by-product of their game playing, they are developers.
When land goes under concrete it stays under. All those areas where people go for a breath of fresh air, to see spring arriving or autumn, to see our patchwork countryside in all its glory, they are being stolen from us. All just for profit. It doesn't worry GVP they don't even live around here!”
by Cal Francis, Bath
Saturday, March 26 2011, 10:14AM
“Visit the Save Woolley Valley website
www.savewoolleyvalley.co.uk”
by Robert Craven, Bath
Saturday, March 26 2011, 10:13AM
“You can object/comment by going to the Council website here
http://planning.bathnes.gov.uk/PublicAccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=LHFC6RCT0M900”