Globalist Muppets Seek (Somebody Else’s) Land

Over the years I’ve written about people and organisations in Wales dreaming up problems and pushing agendas with you and I expected to fund their activities through a captured political class.

In recent years, I’ve had to widen my horizons. Because it’s clear these shysters are now getting corporate funding from the USA and elsewhere. Which is often carefully ‘filtered’ to disguise the source. But always remember – He who pays the piper . . .

Which introduces the latest offering . . .

THE OLD HOME TOWN LOOKS . . . WELL, DIFFERENT

Last Wednesday saw a conference in Swansea organised by an outfit claiming to be the Welsh branch of the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEALL). Basically, local faces hoping to fool us into thinking WEALL cares about Wales.

Much like the so-called ‘Welsh Government’. Or devolution itself.

It was held at the Swansea Building Society Arena on Oystermouth Road, which pedestrians can access over the ‘Crunchie Bar Bridge’.

To check out who was starring at this ‘Festival of Ideas’ just scroll down to ‘Speakers and Panellists’.

There was Derek Walker, the Future Generations Commissioner. A man with a first-class seat on the gravy train. And his successor at Cwmpas, Bethan Webber.

Cwmpas is the UK’s largest development agency for social enterprises and co-operatives. The organisation develops and delivers innovative programmes to support enterprise, increase employment, tackle poverty and promote inclusion.

Translated that means socialists interfering in things they know nothing about. Terrified of letting the economy be run by people who know what they’re doing because such people would be unlikely to take advice from the comrades.

They prefer socialism which, as history tells us, has always been a great success.

There was a couple at the conference from Oxfam. Assorted jobsworths from health boards and ‘Welsh Government’. A man of whom I know nowt except that he must have the whitest teeth in Gwynedd. Then there’s the ‘Welsh Government’s early warning siren for Islamophobia who runs the Kumbaya Caff in Cardiff.

Finally, Yvonne Murphy, of Omidaze Productions, which I mentioned in May last year in connection with that nest of bruvvers, the Tramshed. Though I don’t know why Omidaze needs a website, because Companies House tells us it files as dormant, with nary a penny in the kitty.

Omidaze was mentioned last year because of Murphy’s collaborator Leonora Thomson, who’d come down from London to take over the Welsh National Opera . . . and became a councillor in Cardiff. A good example of the link between the Labour party in Wales and public appointments.

But if Omidaze was Murphy’s ticket to this knees-up, then it don’t say much about the credibility of the others. Anyway, here’s the full run-down of the speakers.

I bet you’re sorry you missed it!

(‘Weall’ is someone’s play on weal, meaning well-being, as in ‘common weal’.)

WHO’S WHO IN THE WELLBEING ECONOMY ALLIANCE?

Let’s first go to the Charity Commission entry for the parent body, and click on the Trustees tab, who do we see? Why, it’s Sophie Howe, Derek Walker’s predecessor as Future Generations Commissioner (and another Labour stalwart). Her entry reminds us she’s also a trustee of Coleg Soros in Talgarth.

Then trustee Professor Kate Pickett gets a mention on the Club of Rome website. (I was astonished to see such a connection.)

Pedro Tarak is an Argentine, which would normally put him in my good books, but he too has dodgy connections.

Jumping to the top of the list, as chair and co-founder of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance with Professor Pickett, we find George James Stewart Wallis. And this link explains:

Stewart Wallis served as Executive Director of the New Economics Foundation (NEF) from 2003 to 2016. Prior to coming to NEF, he worked as a development consultant at the World Bank, and the International Director of Oxfam GB. Currently he is leading a major new initiative to create a global “new economics movement” called WE All (Well-Being Economy Alliance).

Finally, Ashis Tajhya. Who is also connected with the New Economics Foundation.

Multiple organisations overlapping, interlinking, reinforcing and echoing each other’s nonsense. All soaking up money from corporations, taxpayers, or charities. But wherever it comes from it’s money that could be better spent alleviating real problems.

The real problems of the people they claim to be serving.

Turning to Wales, here’s the website and the blog for what claims to be the local incarnation of this organisation. These seem to be the individuals involved.

WEALL Cymru/Wales Ltd is registered with Companies House from an address in the Swansea Uplands. One of the directors is Siân Jones, whose husband Rowland seems to be in the property business; to judge by the companies he’s involved with, and the loans from building societies and banks to buy property.

Though one company, Tirnod, is indebted to the ‘Welsh Ministers’ and also Tai Tarian (re-named NPT Homes Ltd). So is he buying property for a housing association, or for himself and then renting or leasing to the housing association?

Another of the WEALL Cymru directors is Dawn Lyle.

While the Joneses and Lyle live in Swansea, the fourth director, Stephen Priestnall, can be found in Abergavennyshire. His day job seems split between two companies he founded. One is Decision Juice, the other Oomph Ltd, both now owned by Person Centred Software Ltd.

And by following a long and tortuous trail we learn that Person Centred Software is ultimately owned by City ‘escapee’ Matthew Rourke, and Leona Campbell. Through Cow Corner Holdings Ltd, an investment company.

Cow Corner can be found in that bastion of the Greens, Brighton. For Priestnall is a former Green party candidate.

My guess is Priestnall brought WEALL to Wales through his connection with Person Centred Software and that company’s connection with NEF. But why did he recruit people in Swansea?

But forget the property dealing and the investments – it’s all about wellbeing.

LAND REFORM 1

Another offering for those who’d gaily tripped over the Crunchie Bar Bridge was a meeting to discuss land reform. (I can’t believe I wrote that!)

But who, exactly, is demanding, or even debating, land reform? Are there wild-eyed yokels in your area, pitchforks raised, burning torches at the ready, demanding that you all march on the ‘Big House’.

What the hell are these people talking about?

For God’s sake, this is twenty-first century Wales, not late-nineteenth century Ireland, with the Land League defending tenants against absentee landlords.

Then again, seeing as Leanne Wood was part of this circus, maybe Russia in the 1920s would be a better analogy. I can see her now, stirring up the peasants against the kulaks. (Though I’m not sure what she knows about ‘land’.)

Just as there were those serving bigger agendas in both Ireland and Russia, so history repeats itself with ‘The Big Land Reform Debate‘ in Wales.

The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) was the organising force behind land reform in Ireland, as part of the bigger struggle for Home Rule. The Bolsheviks were behind the campaign against the kulaks, in order to facilitate collectivisation.

And so it is here in Wales. Because the objective is to grab land currently being farmed by Welsh families.

And while it was possible to sympathise with Irish tenant farmers, and Russian peasants, I find myself repulsed by faux ‘environmentalists’, vegans, rewilders, socialists, hippy farmers, and anyone calling themselves ‘progressive’.

Behind those discussing land reform in Wales, filling the role of the IRB, and the Communists, we see the Globalists. Who want that land so they can profit from wind turbines, greenwashing, tree planting or ‘natural capital‘.

And of course, with farming destroyed, they’ll also control the food supply.

And that is what ‘Land Reform’ is all about in this context. Though I worry that those attending the Swansea event may be too stupid to realise they’re being manipulated.

LAND REFORM 2 (OR ‘GIMME ACCESS!’)

Also in attendance at the carnival of posturing and virtue signalling was the British Mountaineering Council (BMC). Represented by ‘Eben Myrddin Muse‘. A graduate of Cardiff University who did work placement with the ‘Welsh Government’.

Eben is also an academic researcher with Greener Edge Ltd. Another outfit run by a couple who moved from England (Kent) because the grass in Wales is greener . . . as are those running health boards, councils, and other bodies with public money to fritter away on ‘consultants’.

Anyway, here’s something of Eben’s I was sent. (From Facebook?)

I’d like to focus on a few points from the above contribution. For example, he says:

Improving Welsh communities’ access to land should be a top priority for any party seeking to lead Wales in 2026

Really! Who the hell is talking about improved access to land – is it those wild-eyed yokels again? The truth is, nobody gives a toss – apart from those who were in Swansea last week.

Just ask yourself, is it more important than the economy? The NHS? The education of our children?

Of course not. And to pretend otherwise is absolute bollocks!

What’s more, it has nothing to do with ‘Welsh communities’ being denied access to land. In order to understand what’s really behind this nonsense we must remember that young Eben was there representing the British Mountaineering Council.

And the BMC wants ‘wild camping’. Which means irresponsible buggers going onto someone else’s land, public or private, and doing what they damn well like.

Also, let me explain why the Scottish example quoted cannot work in Wales.

Wales in total is 20,779 km², but the area of Highland Council alone is 25,653 km². The Highlands has vast open spaces, grouse moors and shooting estates almost as big as a Welsh county, with much of the land owned by foreign billionaires and corporations. Wales, by comparison, a few areas excepted, is a patchwork of family-owned farms.

Another consideration is reachability. Tyne-Wear (pop 1.1 million) is the only major urban centre within three or four hours travelling time of the Highlands. Whereas Eryri and the Bannau are both within two hours or so of Merseyside (1.47 million), Greater Manchester (2.8 million), and the West Midlands (6.2 million).

With Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield, East Midlands, even London, not much further away. Altogether, that’s most of England’s population.

I’m sure you’re a tidy boy, Eben, and you mean well. So stop pushing silly agendas that work against your own people’s interests. I mean, how can you claim to care about the environment then push for wild camping with results like this?

Perhaps we can re-visit this topic after the ‘Welsh Government’ has decolonised our rural areas because, as everyone knows, the countryside is deeply racist.

CONCLUSION

Socialism has always wanted to bring down the West, thanks to an absurd belief that it would raise something better from the smouldering ashes.

Countless examples proved that socialism fails. Everywhere. Every time. So it needed to rebrand itself.

Which explains why it re-emerged spouting the fresh idiocies of Wokery, and pushing the self-destructive lunacies of degrowth and Net Zero; while also preaching DEI, anti-white racism, and open borders.

All designed to achieve the old objective of bringing down the West.

As before, private property will be targeted. Whether it’s a family farm or a home you paid for 30 years to own. But it’ll be dressed up as “wellbeing” and “access“.

And this explains why Globalism allied itself with, and now directs, this revamped variant of socialism.

And that’s what last week’s conference in Swansea was really about.

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2025

Golden Grove: Past, Present, Future Generations

The piece you’re about to read poses as many questions as it provides answers. Which is unavoidable given the subject’s complexity. But as great-aunt Fastidia said when she organised Mussolini’s March on Rome  – “You gotta start somewhere, Benny”.

As an aperitif here’s a guest piece on this blog from 2016, just scroll down to the section ‘Golden Grant’.

BRIEF HISTORY

Golden Grove / Gelli Aur lies to the south west of Llandeilo. If we look at the map below we’ll find it in the bottom left quadrant.

The area immediately to the west of the town, shaded grey, is the Dinefwr estate, once home to the Rhys / Rice family, descended from The Lord Rhys. It’s now owned by the National Trust; with the castle ruins in the care of Cadw, and the woodlands entrusted to the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales.

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Another parcel of our land given over to people who think we Welsh are in the way.

Just down the road, Gelli Aur belonged to the Vaughan family, who claimed descent from the princes of Powys. They were a colourful bunch, experiencing their ups and downs; wealthy brides and royal favour to bankruptcies and beheadings.

The Vaughans became the Earls of Carbery. One was made Governor of Jamaica in 1674, with an even more colourful Welshman as his deputy. He was described by Pepys as “one of the lewdest fellows of the age”. Wow!

In 1804 the last John Vaughan died childless, and although there were many Vaughan relatives, including his sister, the estate passed to his friend, John Campbell, Earl Cawdor, who conveniently appeared with a will naming him heir.

Despite the obvious Scottish connection – with Nairnshire – Campbell’s mother was a Pryse of Gogerddan.

That’s enough nobs’ history. Let’s join the twenty-first century.

INTRODUCTION

After trying to set this out in the order suggested by Land Registry titles, and realising there was too much cross-referencing, I decided to go for chronological order dictated by those who’ve been involved at Gelli Aur over the past 20 years or so.

If I’ve missed anyone, then please get in touch, tell me your details, especially how much public funding you trousered.

Let’s start by saying that title number WA883292 ‘Golden Grove Mansion’, seems to have as its Registered owner, Carmarthenshire College of Technology and Art. Which makes sense as there is an agricultural college at Gelli Aur.

GELLI AUR LTD

The first outfit we’re going to look at is Gelli Aur Ltd. Formed 30 April 2001 and after lingering for years, finally departing this mortal coil in December 2010, leaving behind a stack of debts. Though a voluntary liquidator was appointed as early as July 2003.

The leading player in this company was Jeffrey Paul Thomas, based in the small town of Corsham, a mile or so from Chippenham, in Wiltshire.

Over the years Thomas has had many companies to his name.

At the demise of Gelli Aur Ltd there were three outstanding charges, two with Coleg Sir Gar, and one with the Welsh Development Agency. These were created just a year before the liquidator was appointed.

If you go to the ‘Filing History’ tab for Gelli Aur you’ll see, dated 29.03.2003, ‘Statement of affairs’ issued by the liquidator. I have extracted the final page and highlighted the debts with Welsh entities. (Here in pdf.)

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Among the non-Welsh creditors you’ll see Alkemi Group Plc, since re-named Alkemi Ventures Plc. Set up in February 2002, less than a year after Gelli Aur Ltd.

Alkemi was wound up April 2004 following a petition by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. Here’s the relevant document. And finally dissolved in December 2010.

Yet in its brief spell on this Earth Gelli Aur Ltd managed to incur a debt of £685,347.00 with equally short-lived Alkemi. And bless me! – both companies were owned by Jeffrey Paul Thomas.

To claim when a company you own or owned goes belly-up that it owes you or another of your companies hefty sums is often a way of salvaging summat from the wreckage.

Who can forget how Paul and Rowena Williams of Plas Glynllifon claimed to be owed £11.75m when the company they’d passed on to an accomplice hit the rocks. Oh, how we laughed!

With Gelli Aur Ltd out of the picture the old pile was ready for the next ‘improvers’.

DIGRESSION 1

Though we see, picking up one of the pieces (from the liquidator), Golden Grove Estates Ltd, launched 24 October 2003, and which in April 2005 changed its name to Wingwest Ltd.

This company took over the Gelli Aur Ltd charge on the mansion. Here’s the relevant document. It was cleared in January 2007.

It makes sense because if we go back to the list of Welsh creditors we see ‘Stradform Ltd’ of Cardiff. Owed £317,000. The directors of Golden Grove Estates Ltd were also directors of Stradform.

We learnt at the start of 2008 that Stradform had been taken over for £7m.

Stradform was dissolved in October 2020.

BRIMASTON LTD

The title document linked to in the Introduction says: ‘Title closed (15.08.2002) – registration continued under CYM85255’. This title number refers to ‘Land to the east of Golden Grove Mansion’.

The registered owners of this title are Brimaston Ltd. A company Incorporated 16 September 2003, giving its address as 89 Hill Street, Haverfordwest. Its stated line of business was ‘Development of building projects’.

I use the past tense because Brimaston was Dissolved in May 2014. With no less than seven outstanding charges, all with Barclays Bank.

The first four were for Pembrokeshire farms, one fixed and floating charge, and then two relating to Gelli Aur. One for the mansion itself, the other for the West Lodge.

Unfortunately, none of the documents that would give more details about the charges are available on the Companies House website.

Gelli Aur mansion. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

From what I can see Brimaston was a company formed by the kind of people who move to Wales to run the ‘Welsh’ tourism industry. The farms they bought were to be used for ‘holiday barns’ and the like. Frightfully twee.

It seemed to go wrong when one of those involved succumbed to Parkinson’s, poor bugger, and perhaps when they realised that with Gelli Aur they’d bitten off more than they could chew.

Brimaston was struck off in May 2014.

On the Brimaston title document CYM85255 we read that it’s closed, and we are referred to CYM85254.

We’ll pick this up again in the section ‘Golden Grove Trust’.

DIGRESSION 2

Although they invested no money in Gelli Aur, interest was shown by a group from Bridgend who wanted to turn the old house into a home for ex-servicemen.

The Golden Grove Mansion Appeal Ltd was formed in December 2009 and, after a couple of name changes, was finally dissolved in December 2021.

It would appear that nothing came of it. Despite a lot of pennies being collected.

To complicate matters further, this entry on the Charity Commission website says the charity Healing The Wounds Ltd (the current name) is removed from the Charity Commission register, but is still raising funds.

Or am I reading it wrong? Your guess is as good as mine.

GOLDEN GROVE TRUST

As we can read: CYM85254 ‘Gelli Aur Country Park, Golden Grove’ was transferred 16 September 2011, for £1,360,000, to the Golden Grove Trust (then of London). (Other title numbers mentioned in CYM85254 refer to: Cilsane Isaf Farm, Allt y Wern, Golden Grove Home Farm.)

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Golden Grove Trust came in the form of art historian Richard Christopher Salmon and pointillist William Powell Wilkins. There is also a Golden Grove Trust charity.

Wilkins the Dots was gone by March 2013, but Salmon hung on until June 17 last year. Though David Nicholas Salmon, who I suppose is related, didn’t cease being a director until the 10th of this month.

I don’t want to get bogged down here, or to repeat rumours, but as you read in the guest piece from 2016, a considerable amount of public funding went into Gelli Aur when Salmon was there and people still ask what happened to it.

What I can tell you is that Salmon’s departure from Gelli Aur last June links with his being declared bankrupt in April.

The most recent (and very brief) accounts available were made up to 31 August 2022. The asset of £2.5m has to be the main house, etc., with the overall figure reduced to £1.5m by liabilities and debts.

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Those liabilities will be the three outstanding charges on: the mansion, the West Lodge, plus a floating charge over the whole shooting-match.

The charge against the East Lodge was paid off last October, after Salmon’s departure, and the name given on the statement of satisfaction was Hendrik Jan Smit.

Before leaving this section I should also mention Golden Grove Ventures Ltd. Which never ventured far, with the latest accounts showing a deficit of some £28,000.

This too has been taken over by the new boys.

SINGH AND SMIT

If we go back to the directors tab for Golden Grove Trust we see there are now three directors. These are, Smit, who I just introduced, Daljit Singh, and Bronwen Jones.

All give as their correspondence address, ‘Cwrt-Y-Gorffwys, Golden Grove, Carmarthen’. Cwrt-y-Gorffwys was bought in September 2022 for £535,000 by Daljit Singh. And it looks like a cash-down purchase.

And it seems to be a substantial gaff, with some land,. To get there you take the A476 (the Cross Hands road) from Ffairfach, turn off at Park Lane, and you’ll find Cwrt-y-Gorffwys after passing Thomas Motor Repairs.

The only extant company I can find with which Daljit Singh is involved is Ubiq Associates Ltd. The accounts suggest a tuppenny-ha’penny outfit, needing neither accountant nor auditor to help with the figures.

Although Dutchman Smit is not named as a director, he is a Ubiq shareholder. Dr Smit is from the School of Experimental Psychology at Bristol University.

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Now they’re trying to raise money. Though I’m not sure a Crowdfunder will raise the kind of sum Gelli Aur needs.

But we still don’t know why they rocked up at Gelli Aur in the first place. So here’s a shot in the dark. (And if I hit anybody I’ll plead insanity, as always.)

Singh and Smit have no obvious background in property development, and I’m fairly sure they have no experience in tourism, so why would they want a big old house far from their home area?

That home area being Bath / Corsham / Chippenham, the same as Jeffrey Paul Thomas of Gelli Aur Ltd. So maybe they know Thomas. Or is it just a coincidence?

DIGRESSION 3

Next we have CYM409991 ‘The Golden Grove Estate’. (Not to be confused with Golden Grove Estates Ltd, which we encountered in Digression 1.)

This company files as dormant, and is controlled by Sir Edward John Francis Dashwood. If the name sounds familiar it’s because an ancestor was the notorious Francis Dashwood of the Hellfire Club.

But this title is separate to the mansion and, I suspect, it’s grounds. It refers to land between Golden Grove and the Dinefwr Estate, offering sporting rights. Those rights extend to other titles, with more than 10 miles of sewin fishing on the Tywi.

Glanyrafon, circled, is the farmhouse mentioned in the Country Life article from 2017 I’ve linked to. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

The estate was on the market a few years ago, but did it sell? Apparently not. Unless the new owner has neglected to inform the Land Registry.

ADFER GELLI AUR CIC

Finally, we have Adfer Gelli Aur CIC. Which I thought would be another digression . . . until I looked into it.

As the name suggests, it’s a community interest company, formed as recently as April last year. It started with eight directors, but four quit 27 August.

I’m sure many of you’ll be familiar with a community interest company. In my experience, they’re set up to serve a village, or a rural area, or even for a specific project, such as a local hydro scheme.

With beneficiaries numbered in the hundreds, or at most, a few thousand. But when I checked the Certificate of Incorporation for Adfer Gelli Aur, I saw this:

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I said to myself . . . “Jac, my boy, that capitalisation must refer to the legislation of that name. But what does it all mean?

It becomes clear in the same document, under ‘Objects’:

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Elsewhere on the document we read that the agent for the CIC is Cwmpas (formerly Wales Co-operative Centre), much favoured by the ‘Welsh Government’, with 100 employees and an annual turnover in excess of seven million pounds.

Coincidentally, the new Future Generations Commissioner is Derek Walker who, until February last year, was the head of Cwmpas. Small world, innit!

The involvement of Cwmpas and the references to Future Generations suggest that Adfer Gelli Aur CIC might be the vehicle through which the ‘Welsh Government’ takes control of the Golden Grove mansion and grounds.

If nothing else, buying Golden Grove through a CIC might avoid the kind of bad publicity generated by the purchase of Gilestone farm at Talybont-on-Usk.

If so, then we can assume that a great deal of public money will be involved.

Though if Adfer Gelli Aur CIC is taking over, where does that leave Smit and Singh?

CONCLUSION

What’s seems to be proposed with Adfer Gelli Aur CIC shows up yet again a widespread and ongoing problem in Wales.

I can understand the desire to keep Gelli Aur / Golden Grove out of the hands of people like those you’ve been reading about. And I have no objection to it belonging to the nation. But a CIC is not the way to go about it.

Wales needs an organisation like the National Trust to own and safeguard all our important sites. Nothing shows that need better than the disgraceful state of Sycharth, site of Glyndŵr’s home.

Finally, let’s not forget the Barbour and tweed brigade. What does Future Generations legislation say about huntin’ shootin’ fishin’?

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2024

A Little Place In The Country

In this piece I shall look at what might be a renewed attempt to promote OPDs, or perhaps it’s just another bit of ‘affordable housing’ flim-flam. Maybe a bit of both.

For newcomers . . . the OPD system is unique to Wales; it allows people to build a dwelling in open country as long as they promise to worship the sun, name their sprogs Earthworm and Beelzebub, and grow a couple of carrots to prove they’re ‘farmers’.

I’ve written about OPDs many times. Just type ‘OPD’ in the search bar.

GARRISON OPD

Three years ago I introduced Garrison Farm CIC, you’ll find it in this post, scroll down to the relevant section. The two principals were Ross Edwards and Chris Carree. Carree left the company in June 2021 but Edwards is still there.

I assume Garrison Farm is still a going concern because three new directors have joined since Carree left. Let’s look at them in the order they joined.

First, 04.10.2021, was Kevin John Foley, who’s worked for Admiral insurance for 20 years. Is his employer chipping in?

Next we have, 30.06.2023, Christopher Mark Kelshaw. Another Army veteran.

Finally, we have Michael Paul Smith, 05.08.2023, who is Senior Facilities and Project Officer for Swansea council, and has worked for the council for over 20 years. Swansea council contributing?

The plan is to set up – possibly in Swansea, or maybe Carmarthenshire – a kind of OPD community for former military personnel. That’s the impression I get in this video from February last year. (Watch from 38:00.)

The webinar is hosted by David Thorpe, founder / director of the One Planet Centre and co-founder / patron of the One Planet Council.

Thorpe was clearly recovering from a stroke, which he attributed to ‘climate anxiety’.

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Thorpe has crossed my path a few times over the years as I’ve researched OPDs. And the idea of a community of OPDs is not new. As this tweet of Thorpe’s from January 2018 makes clear.

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Though I don’t know what project was being discussed, or even if there was a specific project mooted. So much OPD discussion is little more than pipedreams.

But to return to Swansea, where there was certainly a project launched that could plausibly be called a community. This was Killan-Fach Eco-farm on the Gower side of the city. (Marginally more attractive than the Port Talbot side.)

I wrote about it in June 2020 in One Planet Developments, just scroll down to the section ‘Farmlets’.

The council knocked it back for a number of reasons. One being that . . .

There is also no evidence of how the development would meet local affordable housing needs

Which tells me that ‘affordable housing’ was one of the angles used in the hope of getting planning consent for an OPD project. This is interesting, because you’ll be reading more about affordable housing, and ‘co-operative social housing’, in a minute.

But before that it might be worth focusing on Ross Edwards a little.

From his Linkedin profile we learn that since January this year he’s been Business Development Manager for Rouute. Here’s the website. It describes its product as a, “road-based energy harvesting system“.

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If I understand it . . . pads or sensors are placed on the road surface and vehicles driving over them generate electricity. Even if it works, we’re unlikely to see this technology in Wales because we’re heading towards a vehicle-free future.

There’s another military connection here at Rouute. For CEO is Antony Edmondson-Bennett, a former army officer who, according to his now disappeared Linkedin bio, is trained in ‘close protection’. (It was there last week when I was researching this.)

The Rouute website announces a link-up with a firm called Carma. Here’s a very short video starring the founder of Carma, Jim Holland.

I found the Carma website easily enough, but there is no company of that name registered with Companies House. It was only by scrolling down to the small print at the bottom that I found, “Carma is a trading name of Rewards.Earth LTD 13315107“.

So let’s see what else we can learn.

I THINK THAT I SHALL NEVER SEE . . . ‘.

The arrangement between the two, as spoken by Jim Holland of Carma, is that . . .

Rouute Technologies Ltd will be planting trees for every single unit they sell in the UK or abroad.

While on the Carma website we read of: “UK trees planted by veterans via The Green Task Force“. Here’s the Companies House entry.

On the ‘Meet the Team‘ page of the website we see: “Our target is to plant tens of millions of trees in the next five years“. That is some ambition!

Rooting around for more information I naturally looked up Holland’s Linkedin page, where we see that he was in the Royal Navy for 13 years. So another military connection.

In this rooting around ‘South Wales’ appeared more than once.

One mention involved Paul Webb of Pontypool, who spent 12 years in the Royal Navy. The other mention was about planting trees for Sussex software company Tillo. On that Tillo website we read:

This March, ten members of the Tillo team will be making their way to South Wales for a day of tree planting in partnership with Carma.

Despite the nonsense about saving the planet, what we’re looking at here is greenwash; and it must be bracketed with outfits like Stump Up For Trees, and investment vehicles like Foresight, buying up Welsh farms.

Too much of Wales is being lost in this way. We don’t need any more of it.

DRAKEFORD SPEAKS!

I’ve got a treat for you now – a video clip of our Glorious Leader! It’s from Tuesday last week (Oct 17).

Drakeford was responding to a completely unrehearsed and piercing question from Huw Irranca-Davies MS. Here’s the transcript.

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Seeing ‘Mike Hedges’ and ‘fascinating’ in the same sentence is quite hilarious.

But here’s where I want to focus, on this section referencing “co-operative social housing managed and owned by the people who live in them“:

And the good news is, Llywydd, that we have a new wave of initiatives being led in different parts of Wales: the Solva community land trust, the Gower community land trust, the Taf Fechan Housing Co-operative in Merthyr—all of them initiatives designed to develop housing that will be run and managed by the people who live in them.

In his ‘question’ Irranca-Davies makes reference to “international youth leaders” in attendance, though God knows why anyone would travel to listen to those clowns. Let alone travel any distance.

THE EXAMPLES DRAKEFORD QUOTED

Drakeford mentioned three examples of co-operative social housing. These were, to quote him verbatim: “the Solva community land trust, the Gower community land trust, the Taf Fechan Housing Co-operative in Merthyr”.

Let’s look at them, working backwards.

Taf Fechan looks like an offshoot of housing association Merthyr Valley Homes. I guess it takes over or runs MVH properties. If so, then it’s not a group of locals coming together afresh to build and manage their own community.

Now let’s turn to Solfa.

The Solva Community Land Trust was launched under the direction of, or with the help of, Planed in September 2019. “Planed delivers sustainable outcomes for communities by a collaborative, people-led approach“.

But I’m not sure what if anything’s happened since.

There’s this report from the Western Telegraph (19.02.2021) telling us that 18 affordable homes will be built on Solfa football field. But were they built?

Adding to the uncertainty is that nothing’s been posted on the ‘News’ section of the group’s website (scroll down) since January 2021. Nothing added to the SolvaCLT Twitter / X account since January 2022. And the latest accounts filed with the Financial Conduct Authority show just a few quid in the kitty.

An internet search turned up this from March this year, which suggests the properties are still not built.

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The third project mentioned by Drakeford was in Gower. And I assume he was referring to Gŵyr Community Land Trust. Here’s the website.

Though it’s registered with Companies House as Gower Land Trust CIC, launched May 2021. And with just a few hundred in the piggy-bank it’s also difficult to see where this is going without a major injection of funding.

But it seems to have a rival in the Gwyr Community Land Trust Ltd, launched August 2023. This is a one-man band run by a local, Roger Brace.

I mention that Roger Brace is local because, looking at those involved in Gŵyr Community Land Trust, I see that a number of them are newcomers to Wales.

Director Adam Jefferson Land was not long ago pushing a similar venture over in Devon. (Fellow-director Niaomh Convery came to Swansea with him.) Another of the three directors, Emily Robertson, came to Wales a few years ago after working for Solace Women’s Aid in London.

Going by the bios and other evidence, this crew is sure to appeal to ‘progressive’ politicians. An impression strengthened by the image used in this WalesOnline report in November 2021.

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THE BIT AT THE END WHERE I PULL IT ALL TOGETHER

OPDs, as originally conceived, never really took off. While throwing up a shack in the countryside might appeal to many, needing to prove that you were living a largely self-sufficient lifestyle seems to have put many off the idea.

To make things worse, the idea was highjacked by unscrupulous, often unsavoury individuals and groups, buying land, often tracts of forestry, then selling or renting plots for people to put up cabins or bring in mobile homes.

The examples below are from Llangynog, Carmarthenshire, and they were sent to me a couple of years back. They’re not OPDs, and they don’t have planning permission.

But those who live in them will employ the OPD defence against council planners.

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I’m not suggesting that Wade William Heames is either unscrupulous or unsavoury, but his Edible Forest projects have come in for a lot of criticism. Much of it from people who’d been tempted to buy in, or even had bought in.

Also, from those threatened with being neighbours to one of his projects.

Which brings me back to Ross Edwards and Garrison Farm. I might accept this project if it was home to Welsh ex-service personnel. But if it’s nothing more than a smokescreen for greenwashing, then I would object.

The video you saw earlier, starring Ross Edwards and David Thorpe was produced by Cwmpas. (Formerly, Wales Co-operative Development & Training Centre Ltd.)

Cwmpas is pushing co-operative and community-led housing. Naturally, I went to the Financial Conduct Authority website to get some info on Cwmpas. Here’s the annual return and accounts for year ending 31.03.2022.

Income of £6.5m from “‘Welsh Government’, European funding, other grants and sources of income“. With two-thirds of that income going on the 100 staff.

And I bet you’d never heard of Cwmpas until you read this. How many more such beasties are out there, lurking in the shadows, devouring unwary maidens and feasting on public funds?

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You’ll see that the Cwmpas accounts were signed off by the then secretary, D Walker. Now Derek Walker – for it is he! – is the Future Generations Commissioner. Does he plan to breathe new life into OPDs in his new role?

Whatever Walker may have planned, Drakeford was talking about more conventional housing. But to understand why we are where we are, you need some background information.

It was always my belief that the left wing administration in Corruption Bay wanted rented housing to be the sole preserve of housing associations . . . with these in turn funded and controlled from the Bay.

But the close relationship that developed led the ONS to decide that Welsh housing associations were, effectively, public bodies. This resulted in them being privatised. Explained here from a ‘Welsh Government’ perspective.

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Welsh housing associations are now building many fewer homes for rent. Some are building none at all. They, and their subsidiaries, are focused almost exclusively on private, open market housing.

This helps explain why some councils are trying to make up the shortfall.

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Adding to the problem is the ‘Welsh Government’s ongoing campaign against private landlords.

Finally, and especially in rural areas, we have the issue of holiday homes, also retirees and others buying property and moving in permanently.

So . . . fewer housing association properties for rent; private landlords quitting the business; councils spending money they may not have trying to fill the gap; politicians tickling rather than tackling the rural housing crisis; to a backdrop of recession, a ‘de-growth’ agenda, and increasing economic hardship enforced by following the lunacies of Net Zero.

There could be a perfect storm approaching . . . and this storm will have bugger all to do with any imaginary ‘climate crisis’.

Which is why I would hope to see official support for local people getting together to help themselves. But the examples quoted by Drakeford do not inspire confidence.

One thing for sure – a government making major expenditure cuts, and councils that are also feeling the pinch, should not be funding good-lifers hoping to settle in scenically attractive areas with which they have only the most tenuous connection.

The only real solution is a comprehensive and national housing strategy. But it would need joined-up thinking and hard work – from a ‘Welsh Government’ that prefers soundbites and virtue signalling!

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2023