30 replies to this topic

[KChally]

Well, our application has finally gone in for a Proposed Agricultural Workers Dwelling. I know the council are a bit behind but hopefully we wont have to wait too long for a decision. Our agricultural and planning consultants reports were very comprehensive and have left nothing to chance. Now of course the bills will be dropping on our doormat, but I can assure you that it is money well spent. Although I may not feel that way if our application is refused. We are trying to feel positive but cannot relax until the decision is made in our favour!!!

Everywhere is a bit muddy with all the rain we have had, but our piggies like it this way. They are not as happy when it is hot. Still tyring to increase our breeding sows, but there doesnt seem to be much out there, so looks like we will still have to keep picking out from our own progeny.

Our polytunnel has suffered quite considerably with the high winds and the cover has ripped at both ends. We will have to take it all down though as it is in the place where we want to build the house. We will re-erect it elsewhere, after reducing the size of the cover as I dont think we will need the size of it as it was before.

The high winds were quite frightening and the caravan was rocking quite a lot, but luckily it stayed where it was.

Anyway, although we are now actually living here illegally again (our temporary permission ran out in December) our application is finally in..........

[mel]

Thank you for the Advice you gave me of late, We are currently in talks with a Planning Consultant not sure whether to go with him since you gave the name of yours so we may contact your Guy.
Fingers crossed and lots of luck for you
Mel x

[KChally]

Our planning application has now been registered with our LPA on 13 January. We have had notification from them that, if by 7 March they have not told us that our application is invalid, or that our cheque has been dishonoured, or given us a decision in writing and we have not agreed in writing to extend the period in which they may make a decision, we can go to appeal. Good grief, they really make a meal out of everything. To be honest I will be amazed if they actually do make a decision by 7 March. Anyway I have marked on the calender with a nice red star, D-Day so lets see.

We also had another letter telling us that over 90% of applications made to the LPA are determined under powers delegated by the Council to the Head of Planning and Policy and at present it is anticipated that our application will be determined by Delegation. Well, thats good news I think for us if that happens cos it means surely that there will be less people (on the planning committee)  to oppose our application.

Everything, as I have said before, takes such a long time. So in the mean time we are putting all our efforts into expanding our business further. We must never take our foot off the pedal so to speak and have to push forward. Our farmers markets started again last Saturday and even though it is only January we did rather well. It is a good job aswell cos we have had no income for the last 4 weeks and of course we still have feed bills to pay. Our feed cost has increased by £5 per tonne and we have only managed to fix the price until April when it will have to be looked at again. I suppose the feed merchant will be feeling uneasy about price increases themselves.

This is a large problem if you earn much of your money from farmers markets/events and even farm shops, because in January, especially early January there are not many events taking place, and even the shops orders are smaller. So we have to make sure that we earn enough at the end of the year to compensate.

Our polytunnel cover is completely wrecked at one end and we have mud,mud,mud everywhere. I know its nearly the end of January and I am longing for the spring now. We have decided that if we get our planning permission, we will concrete the whole of the yard area. As we have spent a very large amount of money upto now, we didnt want to spend much more unless we got our permanent permission. At the moment it is still only gravel and grass. We have put in some drains around the edge of the concrete around the stable block, as the ground does collect the rainwater quite considerably, so these help to stop the stables flooding.

I do think there comes a time when you say to yourself, enough is enough with the amount of money you seem to spend. So we will have to wait and see now what happens. Fingers crossed........

[KChally]

<sup>Small update on our application for "permanent agricultural workers dwelling". The Highways Authority have no objection and the application has been put in the local paper for all to see!!. I expect all the farmers in the area will now know our business and how much we are making. The general public now have 21 days to air their views, so i will be watching the application online closely to see who complains. The council though, have not yet put up the planning notice on our land. Thinking back to a previous application we did, this notice was not put up until a week before the consultation date was due to expire. Just goes to show how incompetant councils can be.

This waiting game is a killer....</sup>

[KChally]

Went to the Parish Council meeting last night. I thought our planning application would be on the agenda and hey presto it was. What a fiasco. The members seemed quite edgy that a member of the public was there (I was the only one) so I sat in the corner near the radiator and waited - 2 hours. They went through all the usual, where shall we plant daffs this year, which pot holes need filling and oh yes the jubilee celebrations and so on and so on. At the beginning of the meeting the Chairman had made himself known to me, only because he wanted to know who I was, so I told him I was there because I wanted to know what the Parish Councils thoughts were on our application.

Finally they got to our application. I always thought that if a member of the public wanted to say anything it had to be at the beginning of the meeting, but by god I really had to start defending myself. They had passed all the plans and reports round the table whilst they were discussing other items, so they obviously hadnt seen them before the meeting. A couple of members read through them intently (the farmers in the group) and others just glanced at them. How can you make a decision on something when you havent read the documents fully? beats me! One of them started to question (sorry interrogate) me about the financial
aspect and how could we possibly build anything with that, it couldnt possibly build a commercial???? building. Had to remind him we were building an agricultural workers dwelling (idiot). More stupid questions were asked, like they thought we couldnt possibly have a sustainable business on 6 acres. I reminded them it was all in the reports and they needed to read them.

Now get this, the Chairman said to me "would you mind leaving the room for about 10 minutes so we can discuss it". I said "well i suppose not, but I thought this was an open public meeting". At that point our local councillor, who was attending the meeting and who buys from us at the local farmers market and wants to support us, reminded the Parish Council Chairman that he couldnt do that because it was a PUBLIC MEETING. Anyway, they all had a further conflab and the outcome was they refused it (surprise, surprise) Now, our local councillor was only doing her job, but she had to call the application to go to committee, because it was what was required of her. She told the Parish Council though, that they must send someone to the Planning Committee meeting or she would refer it back for a delegated decision. They ummed and arred about who was to go (none of them really wanted to, they are all talk, ba....ds) In the end the Clerk said, "well I suppose it will have to be me"

Its like some sort of comedy show, without the comedy. (Funnily enough at the beginning of the meeting the Chairman said "We are not very much like the Vicar or Dibley" (idiot) )

So there you have it upto date. Parish Councils, what a load of w......s (sorry about the expletives, but Im so wound up).....

[KChally]

Well, our farmers markets have now kicked in again after a quiet January, but we are always on the lookout for new events, so much so that we need to now look in areas outside of our own county. I think this will be more difficult as we wont really be considered as local producers, but I suppose it depends on how far we will have to travel. The usual thought is, that if you travel approx 50miles you are still conceived to be "local". I do find this quite bizarre however, but if they will have us then I wont be complaining. In my opinion I think 20 miles is ample to be considered "local". At the end of the day we must make money from what we are doing.

Today we took 4 boars in for slaughter and still I find it very difficult and upsetting. We had a slight calamity in that one of our chaps took a wrong turn and ended up under the trailer. These animals in my opinion are so intelligent I feel they must know what is happening to them. Fortunately help was at hand, one of the workers and hubby managed to grab the pigs foot and hold him still whilst I slowly drove the trailer forward. Luckilly he was not hurt and followed his mates into the pen.

I console myself with the fact that we rear our pigs outside in a normal environment where they can live as they are supposed to. So normal actually that we have some humungous holes where they have been digging. Its so nice to see a pig with his head down and his bum up, digging, then he looks up and all you can see is a muddy snout and face

One of our ladies was due to farrow last Tuesday but there is still no sign!!! she is massive. Generally they seem to be about 4 days late, so I dont know what she is playing at, maybe we have got the dates mixed up. Time will tell and we will keep a very close eye on her to make sure she is ok.

Our planning application had a slight hiccup in that we thought the planning committee meeting was on 7th March. Unfortunately our planning officer was not ready with his report, so that date went out of the window. He needed more information from us. He now needed an upto date set of accounts. This is after we had our accountant do an interim set of accounts from April 2011 to Oct 2011 and a forecast for the next 6 months. The Parish Council (idiots) had objected on the financial side of things, so now the LPA wanted a set of accounts for the last 11 months. This is because (according to our planning consultant) our planning officer needed to make sure that he had all the relevant facts and figures to back up his report, as he is going to support us in our application.

So, all thats been done and the info passed to the LPA. Actually we are a little short of the forecast, but we have made more than enough to satisfy the financial need according to our planning consultant. She also said the Planning Committee dont have a leg to stand on to refuse our app, but Im not counting our chickens yet. It has been mentioned to me in a post on the forum, about how planning committee members may refuse our application because of their own agenda ie being able to say to their constituents " i tried my best to stop it" so that they look good and get re-elected. This is totally undemocratic and unacceptable. I suppose if all else fails we will go to appeal.

So thats it, upto date. The big day is now 28th March 10 days and counting and there is nothing more we can do. The waiting game goes on and on and on........

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[KChally]

Oh yes, we also had a visit from the planning officer with his camera. He wanted to take some pictures of the pigs, just to prove that we did actually have pigs and also where the house is going to go. Its a bit late in the day for that I would have thought, but who knows what goes thru their brains.  Hubby dealt with him and he said he was actually alright, although he did play his cards close to his chest and didnt give anything away. Apparently they spent about half an hour chatting, but I expect most of that was hubby on his soap box about single farm payments and how they should be stopped.

Last Thursday we also had a visit from our local councillor who has said she will be supporting our application. She wanted to come and have a look so she knew what she was talking about, she said. Really we think she is just being nosey as she lives on a farm. Lets face it most farmers are nosey. She said the Parish Council (idiots) were worried that we would build a house then let the business go to rack and ruin and sell the house. This apparently has been done before, but I told here in no uncertain terms that this is my hubbys job and if he didnt do this he wouldnt have a job. Its got me wondering whos side she really is on as she was a bit vague in her answers to some of my questions. I asked her if she would be speaking at the committee meeting and she didnt really answer the question.

Apparently the word in the area from some of our friends who work on local farms is "everybody is watching!!!" Like I said nosey farmers lol

[KChally]

Surprise, surprise the date for the committee meeting has changed yet again. It is now the 4 April. Apparently there were too many items on the agenda which was why our date was changed. We have received a copy of the planning officers summary recommendation which is "Approve subject to conditions". This paperwork should be presented to the planning committee for their perusal and hopefully agreement.

Two of our ladies have just produced their litters. They each had 10 but sadly Nora has squashed 3. Both ladies are new to the job but seem to be good mothers and having 10 each for a first time is quite impressive. Thanks be to Patrick, daddy, who we were thinking may be past his best, but obviously he is not and he has been reprieved.

This dry weather is good and bad. I know we need the rain, as it seems we may be having a drought situation soon, but I am so glad everywhere is drying up. Piggies are still digging their way to Australia and taking advantage of the good weather by sunbathing. Dont they know sunburn is not good for them!!!!

We had a really good farmers market yesterday, Sunday. It is one of our best and is extremely well supported by the locals. At this one we sell all our fresh meat and provide a BBQ of our own produce, which brings in some extra revenue. In fact its that busy it takes 4 of us to run the stall. We definitely need more of these, so we will be hunting them down. I think we will probably have to go out of our area into another county if we can. Summer events are now coming in, with the county shows and one day events. We are a little choosy in which ones we do as some of these events can be very expensive in stall rents and you have to make that money back before you are into any profit. Its a gamble really, but you have to be in it to win it I suppose.

Anyway the job goes on..........

[KChally]

This little nugget hit us today. Our planning consultant has told us the Planning Committee are coming to us for a visit!!! They would like us to mark out the position of where the house is to go. So we will have 10 or 12 vehicles parked down our narrow lane. I dont expect the highways dept would be very happy about that lol.

We are a little concerned with the bio security hazzard this could cause. Who knows where these "people" have been. So we have requested they bring their wellies and stand in the foot bath we are going to provide. It should be hilarious, I will try to get some pictures

[KChally]

Well, they came, the planning committee members, along with our planning consultant, planning officer and his boss. Another "person" turned up aswell, the chairman of the parish council. If we had known, we would have said he was not welcome and shouldnt come, but apparently they all get invited. So we had to grin and bear it Im afraid.

They did use a bit of common sense I suppose and turned up in a minibus, but this was due to the fact they didnt want to use their own fuel due to the so called crisis, not because there would have been a lot of cars down our narrow lane. Oh well just 1 more thing we have had to contribute to as tax payers, the cost of hiring the minibus. Sorry I am very cynical at the moment.

The planning officers got the drawing out of where the house is to be positioned and did lots of pointing etc. Then they came down to the yard and had a look at our newborns. Lots of oohs and ahhs etc. It did look quite funny as you could tell some of them had not been on a farm before. Dresses and wellies dont go very well together do they lol. This was not a question and answer session we were told, just a have a look and see visit. They stayed for about half and hour then off they went.

So that really is it, nothing more we can do or say. We are trying to carry on our day to day as usual, but we are so stressed it is unreal. We talked the other day, hubby and I, (we do occasionally) and he said "if someone asked us for advice on whether they should do what we have done, what would you say". We agreed it would probably be no, unless you have at least 7 years to put your life on hold and are very good at dealing with stress. It is far more stressful than getting a divorce and we have both done that.........   We are now waiting for Wednesday for the decision to be made at the meeting.......... watch this space!!!

[KChally]

Well, our saying "working hard to achieve our goals" has paid off. We have got our permission for an agricultural workers dwelling...oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, yeh,yeh,yeh,great,great,great,whoop,whoop,whoop...sorry, had to get that out..!!

The day went like this.... had to go to work till noon (office job unfortunately), couldnt think of much except the council meeting to come, hubby at home doing necessary jobs also probably not able to concentrate (hope he fed everything!!). He picked me up then we had a little lunch.. (I can always manage to eat something lol)

We met our agri and planning consultants at the council meeting. We were so very nervous, in fact hubby couldnt even bring himself to come into the meeting, he stayed outside. The 3 of us went in and sat down, funnilly enough I had to sit behind our parish council chairman who had come to try to stop us. We were 2nd on the agenda. It was really hot in there. The council members got started (it was all full of pomp and yes chairman, no chairman and all that) then it got to us. First the council planning officer (manager actually) said his piece and explained how he was in support of our application. Then the idiot from the parish council (chairman) took the microphone and said everything he possibly could to upset the apple cart. He was then questioned by the committee about some of things he said and some of the committee members even worked out the cost of building the house we want and ripped his information to pieces. I think they could see right through him.

There was one stupid comment from one of the committee members "could the business be run by the main worker staying in a b&b?" I thought, oh my goodness they dont know what they are talking about, this may be the end of our dream. Then the parish council chairman made the biggest mistake of the afternoon, he insulted our agricultural consultant. He said "how can this agricultural report be independant when it says at the beginning, it is produced on behalf our our clients Mr & Mrs......." more on this later. Our local councillor has said previously that she would support us, but hubby has also been a bit dubious of this and would reserve his judgement he said. Anyway she said her piece and yes she was in full support of us.

Now it was time for the big guns, our agri consultant. He took the chair and for 3 minutes said it as it was. He said how insulted he felt by what the parish chairman had insinuated and that his integrity was being questioned and this planning committee should be fully aware of his professionalism as he had worked on their behalf on several occasions. He then took questions from the committee himself, he was amazing, worth every penny of his fee and more. I cannot praise this man enough.

Further questions were asked of the Planning Officer(manager) who was also very good I have to admit (I suppose thats because he was on our side), then it was time for the decision.

At the meeting there we 10 councillors and the council chairman (yep another one). The vote came in 8 for and 2 against so the chairman didnt even have to vote. That was it we had passed.

I was rather emotional at that point and had to fight back the tears as we got up to leave the room. As we left the room our agri consultant made a bee-line for the parish council chairman and I know he told him what he thought of him and how dare he insult his integrity. Hopefully that will have put a flea in his ear and make him think twice next time about what he plans to say.

Our planning consultant made a phone call to hubby who was actually only downstairs to tell him the good news, as I was unable to speak. When we met up I could see he was also emotional ( well lets say it, he was in tears too). We decided we would go and celebrate, so all 4 of us went to Costa for a coffee. Not what you might expect for a celebration but it was a start. We have actually saved a bottle of champagne from when we won an award last November, for this occasion. My thinking now is we might save it again for when we move into our new home!!! (will it ever be opened and drunk)

This huge weight had suddenly been lifted. It has taken the best part of 10 years in total from start to finish, from buying the land to being able to live on it permanently. Maybe finish isnt quite the right word as we have yet to build our house and of course our business must carry on.....yep, we had 2 new litters the other day.....long may that continue. xxx