3 replies to this topic

[Johnboy]

My fiancee and I purchased Dave's Field to Farm in May of 2009, and after reading it we were bitten. Both of us having been bought up on farms and being involved in farming for many years we saw this as an opportunity of returning to our roots.

The first thing we had to do was to look at the capital we had available to invest in this project how much we could raise either by sale of assets or shares for we had decided at the outset that we did not want to burden ourselves with a large mortgage or loan. This done we set about in earnest to find property.

One of the first properties we found was on the small side but was in an ideal position main road leading to a busy market town here in Devon. The property had mains water, low voltage power cables crossing the land and an easy access point. The draw back was the clawback clause in the proposed contract. This made the property unworkable, to me personally these type of clauses smacks of laziness by the owner, wanting to get rich from other people's hard work and believe me it was going to be hard work.

We then found another parcel of land 22 acres with stream, copse, two flat fields, a third field which was flat leading down a steep drop to the stream, all the fields were southfacing ideal. Price was within budget so we set about building a costing.

We collected quotes for the barn for the polytunnels, arks field shelters and alike. We then looked at services telephone would be no problem as the poles ran along the boundry with a distribution point outside one of the two gates. Mains water would be a little more of a problem with the main the otherside of the road this would mean the water board digging the road and bringing over a pipe for us costly but acceptable. Power electricity this was the problem.

The electricty companies we as householders deal with ie British Gas, SWEB, etc have nothing to do with supplying the mains to you ie the actual wire etc this is done by a Utilities company in our case Western. The nearest power cable was only 350 meters away running through a neighbouring field. We had to have it surveyed to obtain a quote and this was the sting in the tail. To have the new supply to our field boundary if run overhead would cost �12,000 if run underground the cost was �8,000 however we could save �3,000 if we did the ground work ourselves ie dig the trench, lay the pea gravel and reinstate. We would then have to pay our neighbour an annual rental for this trench.

All this and at least a 12 mth wait for the new power supply.

You may have guessed we decided that this was too too much, we want to get on not wait around. So friends the land is not the only initial problem the services that you may require could also be.

Hi.

I have a site in lincolnshire and as such the electricity supply had to be installed by 'central networks' the inital quote was £13k plus for a 340 metre underground supply (only option offered) eventially after much haggleing, we agree on £4k they supplied the dusting and cabling, I installed the ducts, pulled the cables and they connectted, After standing my ground and 'asking' for a solution and help, they became very helpful.

John

[Cornish Gems]

Johnboy put a post into Cornish Gems diary and we as one of the Moderators have now moved it to a separate topic - this one.

Usually, we have deleted such posts and sent a pm to the contributer informing them of our reason for so doing but in this instance we decided that what you had said was valuable input for our forum members.

[che]

Hi Johnboy and welcome to the forum.

I read the post and am aware your intentions were good.

Not everyone here knows the forum rules and I hope this does not put you off contributing. The forum needs new blood especially those willing to offer help and advice to others

[Cornish Gems]

Johnboy - thank you for your input. Thank you too for supporting what SD said in his Diary in which he had much the same situation, He also gave us a phrase to use when dealing with the power installer. This is stated in Para 2 in his entry of 9 April of this year.

Yesterday was a momentous day,,, the mains electricity went live! I can't even begin to explain what it is like to just switch on a radio or boil a kettle at the touch of a button. Before, when we were reliant on the genny for electric, we would either have to use the wind up radio or put the kettle on the gas stove unless we had the genny already on. We would only have the genny on if there were a multitude of requirements as it is a 10KVa machine i.e. drinks fuel. Every week we would use around 150 litres of red diesel which equates to about £110 a week, a truly frightening cost when that has been going on for four months. So now we not only have the marvelous benefit of IOL in every room but a huge saving in expenses,, IOL? Instant on lighting of course ..

Not that having mains electricity comes cheaply. We only had a fifty meter run from the nearest overhead pole but I wanted to have 3-phase electricity available for future requirements. This meant having a transformer mounted on the pole and the first quote for all of the install was just over £12,000,, yes twelve thousand !! By luck, I was talking to a nephew whose job entailed dealing with electricity supplies from time to time and he told me to say to the electricity supplier I wanted to have a quote based on 'contestable works'. I have no idea what this really means but I did it and voila, we had a quote of £6,500 + VAT (which we can reclaim). It's still a lot but obviously, having an extra £6,000 in the kitty is not to be sniffed at.

By way of contrast, I also had a quote for a single phase supply from an overhead pole some 200 meters away. This already had a transformer on it and the cost for that supply came in at £5,000. I didn't contest that cost but one imagines you might saved have a coupld of thousand or so on the previous basis. These costs do not include the digging of the trenches but being as I firstly own a small excavator and have spent 30 yrs or so driving such plant, I was able to all that work myself. Had I not, I would probably have to have added another three or four hundred piounds to the costs.

Whilst talking about services, here's one for those requiring a BT line. If no service already exists to your property, under a charter drawn up when BT was privatised, it was agreed that BT would pay the first part of any costs invloved of that connection. Currently that first part is up to £3,400 and will generally cover most installations of up to 500 mtrs from the nearest existing telegraph pole.

So for anyone reading through this diary, be very aware that the costs of installing services is not something to be treated lightly. The costs will nearly always be in to the thousands and can be into the tens of thousands if you are remote from exisitng supplies. Generators are expensive to run in comparison to mains electricity and even boreholes for water can set you back a pretty penny, be it that the cost of water thereafter is only what it costs you to pump it out. Also, the time frame for getting the supply company's to perform is not great; allow three/four months or so from initial enquiry to final connection.