Yes, don’t worry, I am winding down, and eventually retiring, but I’m bringing out this ‘special’ for two reasons.
First, because the picture it paints of Carmarthenshire County Council – and, to a lesser degree, Dyfed Powys Police – is rather worrying. I feel this merits a wider audience so as to serve as a warning to us all.
Second, we are dealing with trees, and unscrupulous companies and individuals that trade in woodland. In 2022 we shall be hearing a lot more about trees, and also about unscrupulous companies and individuals.
This is another ‘biggie’, 3000+ words; but broken down into easily-digestible and nourishing chunks. Yes, nourishing. Enjoy!
♦
‘WOODLANDS FOR SALE’
We’ve all seen them, in both Welsh and English, the roadside signs reading, ‘Coedwig ar Werth’, ‘Woodland for Sale’. Most belong to Woodland Investment Management Ltd (WIM), trading as woodlands.co.uk.
If this sounds familiar, then it’s because I’ve mentioned these people before in, for example, One Planet Developments, getting devious, in July 2020. Now more information has come my way, which prompts this article.
Specifically mentioned in the earlier articles was Allt y Gelli, between Llangynog and Llanybri. There, WIM carved up the old woodland into saleable parcels and flogged them off with names like Coed Aberoedd, Allt y Castell, Coed Gwas y Neidr, and Coed Tâf.
These ranged in size and price from £19,000 for 2.5 acres to £55,000 for just under 8 acres. And the process continues.
In the panel below you see, left to right: an OS map of the area twixt Llangynog and Llanybri, with the area I’ll discuss in a minute circled in red. The woodland is Allt y Gelli.
The central image highlights the parcel of 8.25 acres labelled Coed Ffordd Pererin, which recently sold for £65,000.
While the image on the right shows an adjacent plot outlined in blue for which a man from Guildford, in the county of Surrey, was hoping to get planning permission.
I assume he wishes to be a lumberjack. For last year he intimated to Carmarthenshire County Council his desire to build a ‘shed’, some 8.5 metres long, 2.9 metres to the eaves, and 4.8 metres to the ridge.
A substantial structure for the ‘Storage of forestry extraction equipment / Tractor shed & maintenance bay for aforementioned equipment’. Who could refuse such a request – for he might have already bought his check shirts!
To their credit, the council responded to this enquiry by informing him that a full planning application would be required. To wit: ‘Its (the proposed building’s) use for the storage and maintenance of forestry extraction equipment isn’t reasonably necessary for the purposes of managing the woodland based upon the small scale tree felling and timber extraction proposed.’
As far as I can see, no planning application resulted. Why ever not?
Maybe he realised he’d been rumbled; as this letter of objection suggests.
Let’s be quite blunt here. Woodland Investment Management Ltd is an unscrupulous operator. It buys woodlands, asks for planning permission for roads, ostensibly for forestry work, yet in reality the roads are needed to make the property more accessible and saleable in smaller plots.
Alternatively, WIM just sells off unimproved woodland knowing the new owner will carve it up and flog it off in smaller chunks.
First the timber is harvested and then the parcels sold as off-grid retreats or holiday homes. Not the glorified allotments described on the WIM website. Think how difficult it would be looking after an allotment 300 miles away!
This is what the same company has done with other woodland in this locality, I’m referring now to Plas Estate Woodlands. (The ‘Plas’ referred to is Coomb Mansion, once used as a Cheshire Home.)
The title document tells us that Woodland Investment Management paid £385,000 for this land in 2006, which this report from last April suggests is now in three parts, Allt y Hendre, Allt y Coomb and Allt Tre-hyrn. These lie to the east of Allt y Gelli, and can be seen in the image on the left in the panel above.
On page 3, the title document helpfully lists the owners of plots already sold off.
While Carmarthenshire County Council is to be commended for rejecting the enquiry about a palatial tractor shed, the question remains – what will the council do if this person – and others – just go ahead and build without planning consent?
Moving back to Llangynog, locals are also concerned about land that is or was owned by Mark Oriel, who appeared on this blog in June 2020, in One Planet Developments. Oriel got a mention back then because he’d applied for retrospective planning permission for an OPD at Pentowyn farm, just across the estuary from Laugharne.
As far as I can see this Pentowyn application – No: W/40691 – has stalled, for nothing has been added to the documents available on the council’s website since revised drawings appeared on April 30, 2021.
Which might explain Oriel turning his attention to land he owns / owned at Llangynog. Land he certainly bought for £25,000 in 2007 from – who else! – Woodland Investment Management Ltd.
Many trees have been cleared and one suggestion made is that a woman from Lampeter plans to grow vegetables on the site. Whether she has bought it from Oriel is unclear. The Land Registry says he is still the owner.
No doubt this woman will claim sound ecological credentials for her activities, with her vegetables fed only the finest yak manure (flown in daily from Mongolia) . . . yet to make way for this horticultural extravaganza many of the mature trees you see in the image above have been felled.
But wait! Isn’t the ‘Welsh Government’ paying for trees to be planted? Well, yes indeedy . . . but only if they’re planted by global corporations and hedge funds as carbon capture scams that allow them to carry merrily on, emitting . . . carbon.
And of course the Labour Party and its little Plaid Cymru helpers don’t mind at all if this ‘Look-at-virtuous-little-Wales!’ posturing removes farmers from the land and destroys Welsh communities.
And let’s not forget the wind turbines. Natural Resources Wales has admitted to felling some two million trees to make way for the concrete and hardcore these useless monstrosities need. How many more trees have been felled by private forestry owners?
But on the plus side, covering Welsh hills with concrete to increase the run-off of rain is of great benefit to the parched valleys and dry river beds below. The former Pontypridd desert is blooming again!
This policy of ‘plant-a-tree-chop-down-a-tree might make sense to somebody. But it strikes me as confused and inherently contradictory virtue signalling.
Alternatively: Purest bullshit.
Locals fear that Mark Oriel’s land is destined to become a collection of shit-in-the-stream dwellings. Though nothing resembling a planning application, or even a pre-application enquiry, has found its way to County Hall.
Yet these recent images show a site being cleared of trees, and roadways being laid. I’m told these roadways go off on ‘spurs’ that just come to a dead end. Which makes perfect sense if each spur will lead to a chalet or a mobile home.
The evidence suggests that Mark Oriel, or perhaps the person to whom he’s sold the land, is sub-dividing it with a view to selling it off in plots.
Maybe Mark Oriel will contact me (as he’s done before) with answers to these questions:
1/ Do you still own this land?
2/ If so, what are your plans for it?
3/ If you’ve sold it, who did you sell it to?
Questions worth asking because clearing woodland, laying trackways, then selling off plots to those wanting to live on those plots in chalets, sheds, tepees, and trailer homes, is happening all over the ‘triangle’. And has been for some time.
In one notorious case, near to the settlement of Llangynog, there was an example that at one time had as many as twenty structures on it used either as permanent or seasonal dwellings.
(And when I say ‘seasonal dwellings’, I am not referring to clans of hunter gatherers. These were holiday homes.)
UPDATE: Feedback suggests that Mark Oriel has indeed sold the land. It is rumoured that the lady originally interested has ‘passed it on to friends’. Which makes things very opaque. And worrying.
◊
‘WHAT’S MINE IS MINE . . . AND WHAT’S YOURS IS ALSO MINE’
This chapter begins with another purchase from Woodland Investment Management.
But it went much further. The purchaser was not satisfied with what he’d bought in 2007 and soon took over land belonging to a woman who had recently been widowed. When she complained she was threatened with physical violence.
The poor woman went to Dyfed Powys Police who decided they could do nothing because, I’m told, they chose to view it as a civil case of Adverse Possession rather than the criminal offence of Aggravated Possession.
After repeated threats against her the widow became too afraid to take civil action.
Bizarrely, she was also threatened by the council, perhaps because they believed she was responsible for the chalets and other unauthorised dwellings on the land that had been stolen from her!
The villain responsible appears not to have registered his ownership with the Land Registry, or else had someone else pose as the owner. (Something we’ve seen at Bryn Llys and elsewhere.)
This wasn’t the first time he’d taken over someone else’s land. A source tells he’d also been, ‘Active in the Mumbles area. I spoke to a farmer who told me —– had taken over some of his farmland claiming adverse possession. The farmer got him off eventually, but described —– as a vicious bully who would use intimidation and the threat of force (guns mentioned) should anyone cross him.’
This man we’re discussing hailed from Pontarddulais. He died in 2019.
I’ve chosen not to name him partly because he is recently deceased and therefore unable to answer for himself. Also, because with a common Welsh name it’s difficult to track him down. A problem compounded by the fact that he was a man who seemed to have disliked paperwork and official records. His dealings were often cash in hand and word of mouth.
But the physical and anecdotal evidence is there in abundance. As you can see in the previous image, and the one below.
From 2007 until April 2021 Carmarthenshire County Council (CCC) received many, many complaints, from individuals, the community council, and county councillors, about Coedfryn wood, but did nothing.
Well, to be fair, enforcement notices were issued . . . but, er, never enforced.
Hopes were raised in April 2021 when the community was informed by CCC that money had been set aside and enforcement would be implemented. So the people of Llangynog waited, and waited . . . and waited.
Again, nothing happened.
Then, in September, in a complete about turn, the council decided to effectively write off outstanding enforcement orders. Read the relevant document.
Having failed to discharge its responsibilities to the law-abiding, council tax-paying citizens of Llangynog and other communities Carmarthenshire County Council was now trying to absolve its guilt by wiping the slate clean and handing victory to thieves, thugs, squatters, drug dealers and God knows who else.
What a testament to local government in Wales!
When the people of Llangynog were eventually informed of this decision they were told it was ‘not in the public interest’ to pursue these historic enforcement notices. How is the ‘public interest’ being served by this decision? Who are ‘the public’?
Here is the community council’s response to the chief executive of Carmarthenshire County Council last week. It’s worth reading because it lists the various problems in the area, all of which are attributable to the failings of the council.
There now seem to be new owners. One chancer swaggering about trying (and failing) to impress people is Steve Ryan of Weston-Super-Mare. He’s another who seems to own nothing in his own name.
Though there is certainly land there owned by a resident of Weston-Super-Mare, but she’s named Cecilia Polisario O’Callaghan. In fact, she appears to own the trackway running to the settlement of chalets and other constructions. Here’s the title document.
But if Ryan owns this land why isn’t it in his name? Come to that, why doesn’t his name appear on any other documents? Because he claims to own everything. Does he need to hide his assets?
Though as I say, he seems to be telling the truth about living in Weston-Super-Mare, apparently with a woman who also has an Hispanic-sounding name.
What I find intriguing though is that Ryan claims to have interests in Mumbles.
Another proprietor at Coedfryn woods is Ivan Wallace of Swansea. He owns land alongside the trackway. But again, there’s a wee mystery.
The address given to the Land Registry when the land was bought or transferred to him in 2010 was c/o a council-owned property in Loughor. For the past 7 or 8 years he’s lived in the city centre, alone, in a house owned by a woman who appears to be a social worker or a carer of some kind.
When we turn to Coedfryn Wood itself it’s almost impossible to know who owns what. At least, with Woodland Investment Management – as we saw at Plas Estate Woodlands – we can see the buyers of the individual plots, and get the Land Registry title numbers.
But when WIM sells to unscrupulous individuals, who have an aversion to official records, who then sell or lease individual plots, for cash, it becomes very difficult to establish ownership.
The appalling lack of professionalism in the county’s planning department was eventually observed by others.
And following Audit Wales’ damning review of the council’s planning services last year there was a big shake-up of the planning department. (This might explain the decision to wipe the slate clean.)
Though the problem with wiping the slate clean is that of course the problems remain unsolved. So I’ll address Carmarthenshire County Council’s planning department directly.
You and / or your predecessors have made the department a laughing-stock. The unscrupulous know they can do anything anywhere, and, then, if you are stirred into action, your enforcement notices can be ignored because you won’t follow them up.
All the while communities like Llangynog are betrayed. Their people robbed and threatened while you hide in County Hall.
Here’s my suggestion.
You have the information you need from the community council and your own records. So work it out with the police and one fine day descend on the Llangynog area and make it clear to all malefactors that unauthorised work is to cease, with chalets and other structures without planning permission to be removed. Then remedial work is to be undertaken.
Fail to do this and you’ll end up in the same mess as your predecessors. Do it and not only will you be serving those who pay your salaries, but you will send out a message that will save the council a lot of work in future, and the county’s communities a lot of misery.
◊
WALTER MITTY GETS IN ON THE RENEWABLES SCAM
As we’ve seen, the drive to be environmentally friendly, encouraging people to live a simpler life, and in other ways save the planet, obviously attracts crooks and con men because there’s easy money to be made.
We’re moving a little further east now, but staying in the county of Carmarthenshire, to not far from the great metropolis of Llanelli.
Those of you familiar with the A484 as it runs north from Pembrey to Kidwelly will know that it crosses low-lying, marshy terrain. Part of it known as Kidwelly Flats.
So you might be surprised to learn that someone wants build a solar farm there. Opposite Pembrey International Airport.
That someone is Arthur Edwyn Turner-Thomas. For that’s the name given on the title document for ‘The Pen, Pembrey’. Though on this Companies House entry for Richard Thomas and Co (Hydro) Ltd he is elevated to Sir Arthur Edwyn Turner VC.
It should go without saying that he is neither a knight nor has been awarded the Victoria Cross. He is, as the title to this section suggests, a fantasist.
But not to be entirely dismissed, because he’s also a practising con man.
Artists who appeared at his Tenby Folk Festival in August 2008 – headlined by Cerys Matthews – are still wondering what happened to the £30,000 collected by Arthur Turner-Thomas – cos they never saw a penny of it!
The report I’ve linked to tells that the festival was organised through the Field Admiral’s company Wicked Wang Promotions Ltd. That company must have folded, but a new company with the same name was launched in January 2017. With ‘Edwin’ serving as secretary and ‘Edwyn’ as director.
The thing about this company is that the latest available accounts claim it has assets of £137,526. Yet in October 2020 Sir Arthur Edwyn Turner VC applied to strike the company off. Had creditors caught up with him?
In December 2020 there was certainly an objection to the striking off, and the company is now in a state of limbo, with accounts a year overdue. I wonder where the money is?
Anyway, moving on . . . Arthur applied to build a small solar farm on the marshland he owns. The community council objected, a plan so absurd that Carmarthenshire County Council turned it down!
But the Field Admiral is still making money from the site because I’m told the ‘Welsh Government’ has given him a grant to look after some trees. Which, to judge by the pictures I’ve been sent, he is not doing very well.
And whaddya know – a shipping container has appeared, just as in Llangynog. I wonder what that will be used for?
It should go without saying that Field Admiral of the RAF Lord Sir Arthur Edwyn Turner-Thomas VC, Croix de Guerre, Congressional Medal of Honour, Iron Cross (First Class), Woodcraft Badge, was once a Plaid Cymru candidate. And is probably still a member.
But who’s going to notice one more nutter among the Bangor ‘No Debating!’ Society, the Splott Terfhunters Alliance (pile-on training every Tues & Fri), and the Knit Your Own Antifa Balaclava Collective?
UPDATE 12.01.2022: I’ve received more photographs. I’m still intrigued by that storage container. The trees are obviously thriving under the Grand Vizier’s stewardship. I’m assured that that is an eco-friendly tyre dump. And look at the little rocking-horse. Ahh!
◊
CONCLUSION
Politicians in Wales, especially on the left, have been suckered by those who’ve hijacked an environmental crusade for personal gain. Which is why we have rural slums springing up everywhere, burning wood, polluting watercourses, and paying nothing towards the services they have no intention of abandoning.
And it can only get worse.
For the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ wants to throw money at global corporations and hedge funds, to encourage them to buy up Welsh land, to destroy rural communities, in order to claim that they are offsetting their carbon emissions.
Add this to the problems of holiday homes, Airbnb, etc . . .
As with wind turbines, there will be no jobs, no investment in Wales, just more ‘climate colonialism’. Though Wales can not really be classed among the ‘developing countries’. No, under authoritarian crony socialism we’re going backwards.
Though we’d win an Olympic gold if the IOC introduced Gesture Politics as an event.
It’s only a matter of time before some lying bastard turns up in Corruption Bay with a bag of magic beans. He’ll claim they grow into trees with wind turbines instead of branches; and instead of leaves, the branches will sprout little solar panels. Ahhh!
I hope I’m not giving you ideas, Sir Arthur!
♦ end ♦
Your rhetorical question of 2 days ago – are the nutters coming back ? The answer is they never went away, they just swam in deeper waters just away a bit from the wreckage of Y.C. They needed to be eliminated, some might say exterminated, but as I know I’m far too gentle a soul to utter such sentiments.
Of course you are.
There’s a tweet in your column today that says :
“I have now established that @Eluned_Morgan has herself stopped all new prostrate cancer treatments in whole of Wales. What a despicable woman she is. You would expect a health minister to have empathy towards cancer sufferers but what can we all expect from @WelshGovernment”
Is this some kind of nasty joke or does it report a real decision taken by Welsh Government ?
Maybe they have to get funds from somewhere to treat a sudden rush of cervical cancer among men without serious identity and personality disorders.
The guy making the claim seems convinced he’s right. I think the ‘Welsh Government’ needs to clarify the situation.
Dafis, You seriously need to confirm this urgently – it would not surprise me! If true, splash it everywhere, not just to our hero Jac. Where are the jaded Opposition ‘time servers’ in Plaid Cymru & Tories & Lib Dems? Oh, I forgot Plaid Cymru is no longer a scrutinising Opposition in Cardiff – they are now by agreement part of the rotten Wales Labour Government. So where are the sleeping Tories and Lib Dems?
Polisario O’Callaghan? How did she get to be named after Western Saharan militants?
That area used to be ruled by Spain and I believe she is Spanish.
Excellent piece. Lack of enforcement from CCC seems to be their default. Have you heard the one about the Llama Farmer in Llandyfan?
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10158238114150825&set=a.448359785824
Planning permission was refused in August. Are they pushing on regardless?
Aye. The ‘New Margam Park’ is rising. Whilst CCC fiddle.
Give that Shelley Grandfield a shout on Facebook, she’s been fighting it for months, she should better inform you as to the enforcement from CCC, or lack thereof. I’m sure she would appreciate your interest, she’s a vetinary nurse who has major concerns about how those poor Animals are being used commercially, without adequate care or due process.
Way off topic but part of the complex mix of problems/challenges that we face – I see that the Chilean dame who will be the next Children’s Commissioner is evidently a full on Islamo-Fascist sympathiser despite her own folks having to get out of Chile because it was ruled by a nasty old Fascist Pinochet ( much loved by elements in UK Gov of that time ). The Labour – Plaid authoritarian clique must be delighted to have found a person who has developed such a good old reactionary pedigree to fill the post.
Ms Cifuentes and friends will appear in the next post on this blog. (God! I can’t kick the habit!) It’s about Labour Party corruption of course, but it brings together anti-Semitism, NHS contracts, even a rape case. Order your copy now!
Does this new Wales Children’s Commissioner speak Welsh fluently apart from Spanish and English? Will she be out canvassing for any particular Labour Candidate in the imminent Swansea County elections in Killay?
She might be out canvassing for her father, I understand he’s a Labour candidate for Swansea council in May’s elections.
Father Labour ? Ah, that explains a lot ! Tell us more.
Some consolation that she has a father. Some of those Labour politicians are right bastards !
Had another look at this report of yours. I find it strange that an area that was so rich in agriculture, particularly dairy and livestock, has been invaded by a mix of infestations. None of these activities add value in the way that conventional farming does.
“Ah” say the assorted talking heads that want the countryside cleared of its traditional industry, “farmers don’t make huge amounts of money.” Well maybe they don’t but they do recycle a lot of their gross income into their assorted supply chains – services, animal feed, contractors, as well as spending loot in the nearby towns. That triangle you describe has been a major part of the success story of Carmarthen as a market town, an area that supplied milk to factories in Carmarthen and Whitland, with well laid out holdings in a variety of sizes.
Of course this is an economic activity that the lunatics down the Bay wish to eliminate or at least radically reform. Dairy and meat might survive in their silly minds if we could genetically modify animals so that they would stop pissing and shitting. It never crossed their daft minds that placing a sensible upper limit on volume of discharge, i.e numbers of stock per 100 acres might go some way to easing the slurry problem. They are very productive in generating ideas for choking activity but none of the “brightest and best” seem able to get a simple repeatable technique for disposing of effluent safely. That said the smell in many of our towns last summer suggested that the experts overseeing urban effluent were no nearer coming up with answers either. Does that mean that there should be a limit on how many people live in any particular area, or will it become a case of people only allowed to piss twice a day and dump once, maximum ?
No doubt this is all down to government at various levels but mostly at Wales Gov. If there wasn’t any moolah floating around to fund half baked schemes then most of these scheming grifters would not come rolling up at County Hall in Sir Gar or anywhere else with their shoddy propositions. Daft funding schemes for even dafter ideas may have appeared like a good job creation scheme to some bureaucratic sociopath a few years ago but it has spawned a monster. Like all monsters it needs putting down sharpish and in a way that prevents any more spawn from leaking out of the carcass.
Jac, Your findings that
Location 1
“land belonging to a woman who had recently been widowed”
Location2
“Cecilia Polisario O’Callaghan of Hispanic origin”
Location3
“The address given to the Land Registry when the land was bought or transferred to him in 2010 was c/o a council-owned property in Loughor. For the past 7 or 8 years he’s lived in the city centre, alone, in a house owned by a woman who appears to be a social worker or a carer of some kind.”
Indicates cuckooing.
It is a common method of avoidance from enforcement, best known in the word of drug and people trafficking. Finding someone vulnerable or exploitable to carry cans or as a means of distancing the perpetrator from the deed. I am surprised Dyfed Powys Police have not launched investigation, especially when objectors have been threatened with physical violence and guns. Whilst you have correctly identified the effect on local communities, but
there is also the matter of money laundering.
Put simply, if you buy land, the first thing you do it ensure it’s correctly recorded at the land registry. There is always a suspect motive for not doing so. It’s a very simple knock-up for a detective. The question you ask is ‘why?’, even better if they kick off or do possess illegal firearms.
I also think. Looking at the photo’s of the chalets, huts, and battered caravans, these this is not just and off-book second homes. More like gaffs for those ‘at large’ with outstanding warrants, trafficked foreign nationals, slavery, and the possibility of stash locations for other trades.
Money laundering and other activities did cross my mind, but without hard evidence I was reluctant to raise the possibility. And that may well have been what was happening with the recently deceased villain.
But the problems go wider than that with Woodland Investment Management carving up its holdings into smaller plots and encouraging people to buy them for dwellings that they know will never get planning permission. But that doesn’t matter in Carmarthenshire (and elsewhere) because the council might issue an enforcement notice, but that’s as far as it’ll go.
A police officer does not require, or interested in, an enforcement notice from the council. She/He has one tucked up in the pocket. It’s called a warrant card. Go in in see. Follow the nose. Access can only be denied if it’s a registered dwelling (which they aren’t) requiring a court warrant. It’s only the owner that can object to entry anyway, and hey presto, they identify themselves. It’s the refusal that ticks the box. Woodland Investment Management is just a shady operator. If collusion (by knowingly parcelling land) is identified it is a joint endeavour and face the same charges. It only takes one case to shut them down and send the spivs and speculators scurrying back to Surrey.
Which, again, does not reflect well on Dyfed Powys Police. Though if the decision had been taken at a higher level then a PC getting involved might be making trouble for himself.
I see a pattern.
There’s a relationship to the plots, the sum paid, and the threshold of capital gains tax. Once the woodland has been sliced and diced it’s possible for parcels to appreciate over the tax threshold. There are two things the conveyancing solicitor does. (a) the money laundering declaration, and (b) the declaration to HMRC. Both failures are criminal offenses.
This explains the lack on entries at the land registry.
Very interesting. The Land Registry is still months behind with registrations, up to six months, which makes it difficult to get information of new owners.
As for Dyfed Powys Police, they’ve used that tactic of redefining a criminal offence as a civil offence, several times in my two year quest to administer my late mother’s estate. I live in England, my mother’s house is in Ceredigion. Various lockdown restrictions have prohibited me from visiting. My mother died intestate so I can’t enter the property. Other people at various times have been in. You and I would call that burglary or breaking and entering. Dyfed Powys Police call it a civil offence so refuse to investigate.
In the latest incident, someone posing as the owner, contacted a locksmith with a tale about losing her keys, could he help. He did. He changed the locks, she gained entry, she’s taken occupancy. An eyewitness saw it all happen. Police dismiss it is as a civil offence, refuse to investigate, even advise me to instruct a solicitor!
So I’m not surprised that they are facilitating the theft of land.
That is one terrible story. But it confirms my view of Dyfed Powys Police. Thankfully, new legislation is in the pipeline to criminalise certain civil offences, including Adverse Possession.
Ah you have to make allowances for Dyfed Powys Plod. Like so many other forces they have been busy learning all the new things they need to know about hate crimes – transphobia and all these new ishoos that have arisen to distract our noble boys in blue. No doubt if Stonewall gets the boot they will need more time out to rewrite those juicy contractual agreements with providers of dodgy advice. Law and Order – no chance of that in this shallow new world we live in.
When I was a kid, coppers were big, burly buggers, often ex-Services, and ideal for dealing with villains, pub brawls, etc. They were not expected to be intellectuals, just brawny and honest.
We’ve gone so far the other way to accommodate minorities and for other reasons that we’ve ended up with a police service struggling to fulfil is primary role – maintain public order and bring criminals to justice.
Cast your mind back to the time when devolution was new. Policing was not devolved, but in a moment of madness the orange one (Lord Hain) suggested that the regional police forces should be merged to form a unified Welsh Police force. Objections at the time included Plaid Cymru who did not stand for PCC and was the beginning of their retreat to the Fro. There were also loud objections from across the border, compatriots of Hain, who also objected, as it might give Wales too much power in these matters.
The idea was shelved.
Except in Scotland, where it is quite evident that with technology and ‘specialist units of expertise’ make the ‘geographical issue’ non-existent. I have no doubt your average door buster in the drugs team in Gwent would have no problem with a caravan squat in Carmarthenshire, and a geek plod in Bridgend is perfectly capable of uncovering a few lags in Nebo. I suspect that your average plod in Dyfed Powys is not keen to open a hornets nest in some Carmarthenshire woodland, but none the less, anyone who makes threats of violence should be collared.
Perhaps Heddlu Cymru is not a bad idea after all.
It’s also the basis of independence. A Policing Minister for Wales.
One of the reasons give for creating Police Scotland was ‘separate legal system’, though you’re right about the geographical issue, which seems to owe more to county cricket than sensible policing.
It helps, but a separate justice system is not a prerequisite. British Transport Police being cases via the procurator fiscal in Scotland, as well as the CPS in England and Wales. Policing is different from the courts system. There’s a man found innocent in Cardiff called McEvoy who can testify to that.
Perhaps the police are preoccupied with trying to understand the latest version of the ever changing Covid 19 statutes / regulations / guidance and enforcing mask wearing in public areas, or am I being cynical [again !]. There has never been a better time to rob a bank in Wales as you are invited to wear a face mask on entry to the premises.
Any would-be robber needs to find a bank. I’m no longer sure where my nearest bank is.
You’ve just listed you nearest one on your blog. There are a number of branches. RadsomStrip, LandsBanking, Slice&Dice and EnergyGrantBank. May I remind you that bank robbing was invented in Carmarthenshire. Highwaymen (dearest Twm) used to rob farmers taking their cattle to market, so the Black Ox Bank was set up as surety in Llandeilo and Llandovery. They even issued banknotes. The crooks, being displaced from stand and deliver activity and went on to actually robbing the bank. Today, the demise of the bank in the high street they’ve again been displaced to other forms of robbery and a have need for laundering. A bit of cuckooing the vulnerable and planting bully boys into a caravan on a site is just the method. Has nothing been learnt from Nebo? You blogged on that fiasco long before gogplod woke up.
Whenever you might find a bank in Wales it’s unlikely that there’s much cash in the bloody thing anyway. The conspiracy to squeeze “readies” out of the picture and put us all on some chip based medium received a boost from the Covid farce when handling cash was said to promote transmission. What utter bollocks, especially when people in the know were breathing all over each other at Downing Street parties and later in the year in an informal bar set up inside the Senedd so that 4 or more of the elite members could guzzle away merrily.
The cvnts who are really pulling strings in this country must think we are stupid and some of the docile populace/ electorate are stunningly compliant. However I remain eternally optimistic that people will turn not so much because Boris and Co are pissheads full of self important entitlement but it’ll be down to something like the excessive energy bills soon to be dished out online or landing on your front door mat. Any kind of regime that cheerfully stands by and sticks to the old “let the market sort it” mantra is asking for trouble.
This kind of arrogance was the undoing of Cameron when he put the EU membership to the vote. People who felt left behind cottoned on to the fact that it was a good time to kick him in the balls. Boris’ kicking will come for sure and my money is on energy bills, persistent dishonesty and vividly evident incompetence to combine in a toxic mix for the fathead and his crew.
There’s your answer. It’s no longer a police ‘force’, but a police ‘service’.