2 days ago
We're being forced to rip down our entire holiday park after splashing our life savings… but we have one last hope
A COUPLE have been ordered to tear down the holiday park they invested their life savings into - but they have one final hope.
Bonnie Fisher, 53, and Shane O'Neill had previously dreamed of an idyllic retirement complete with their own glamping site.
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The couple spent their life savings on the project four years ago.
They both sold their homes, as well as a jointly-owned cottage they had renovated, to buy the farmhouse and campsite in the country in Llangain, near Carmarthen, Wales.
The site has certification by the Caravan and Motorhome Club for five caravans, motorhomes or trailer tents.
It later expanded to include three glamping pods before the couple bought the site - and currently has 29 pitches.
Parts of the site needed significant work, as the pair replaced a toilet and shower block, in addition to constructing a new reception building.
This cost thousands on top of the initial purchasing cost.
However, the council has now ordered the couple to tear down the buildings, as well as the glamping pods.
It claimed that the site "was largely unauthorised".
The couple, who live in the farmhouse, could be forced to close Church House Farm Getaways as a result.
Bonnie, a nurse who runs a private aesthetics clinic, said: "This is our retirement project. We sold my house, we sold Shane's house, and we sold a jointly-owned cottage which we'd renovated to buy this place.
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"We've got no plans to enlarge it. Visitors always get a good welcome. We like to see people come and enjoy themselves."
Carmarthenshire Council previously refused a planning application in 2006 for 30 touring pitches and a toilet and shower block due to highway safety.
It had previously granted temporary permission for a portable toilet block for two years in 2004.
Bonnie and Shane said they were unaware the new shower block and reception building required planning permission.
They then applied retrospectively, but this was denied by the council who said that the site was largely unauthorised.
A further application for a certificate of lawfulness for the three glamping pods was also refused.
In March of this year, an enforcement notice ordered the couple to remove the glamping pods, toilet and shower block, and reception building.
They were also ordered to stop using the land as a caravan and campsite.
An exemption was made for the area that had been certified by the Caravan and Motorhome Club.
While the couple did acknowledge to the Planning and Environment Decisions Wales that a planning breach had occurred, they argued that the site expansion could be lawful because it had been there so long.
Their agents urged the planning inspector to extend the three-month deadline so that they could draw up a certificate of lawfulness application or other planning applications to the council.
But the inspector turned the appeal down saying that extending it to 12 months "would considerably prolong the identified public harm".
In the hopes of keeping their beloved site, their planning agents are submitting a certificate of lawfulness application to the council arguing that it is in keeping with its historic wider use.
This could help ensure that the toilet and shower block, reception building and glamping pods remain.
Bonnie said: "We would appeal it. If that decision was upheld we would have to close it (the site) down."
The site has won awards in recent years while some neighbours have backed the couple to say the site was well run, an asset to Carmarthenshire, and that steps were taken to ensure a free flow of traffic when caravans arrived.
Bonnie said a council tourism officer visited the site and estimated it was worth £2.6 million in visitor spend to the wider economy.
A council spokeswoman said: "As the local planning authority, Carmarthenshire Council does not condone unauthorised development and will use its full range of powers to seek to regularise development in the public interest."
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