PLAS GLYNLLIFON
This is the third instalment of my gripping narrative dealing with shysters, con men, crooks, liars, asset-strippers, and assorted low-lifes. To bring yourself up to speed I – and my agent – recommend that you read Weep for Wales and Weep for Wales 2 before proceeding.
As I mentioned in my previous posting, there were Open Days at Glynllifon on Sunday and Monday (the 24th and the 25th). And despite my absence it all went swimmingly . . . if we are to believe Rowena Williams and the hitherto unknown Land & Heritage Ltd, who seem to have had a big hand in arranging the event.
So now you’re asking, ‘Who are Land and Heritage Ltd?’ The answer is that it’s a new company, formed less than a year ago, and based in Cornwall, where Paul and Rowena Williams have enjoyed a number of triumphs. They may still have business interests down there, who knows with those two?
You will note that according to the panel above, from the Land & Heritage Facebook page, Team Williams showed people around the house with its impressive fixtures and fittings, while “Matt, Sarah and Dudley presented plans for future projects and developments”. The BBC was also in attendance.
‘Matt’ I assume to be Matt Jackson, director of Land & Heritage. I’m not sure yet who ‘Sarah’ is (but I know somebody’ll tell me). Of more interest though, is ‘Dudley, who I’m almost certain is Dudley James Cross, Regional Head of Building Consultancy at Lambert Smith Hampton. A company, you may remember from the previous instalment, mentioned in this report from the Daily Post of two years ago as the ‘agent’.
I suspect that LSH was involved in the liquidation of the company that previously owned Plas Glynllifon, or perhaps not involved in the liquidation itself, but with finding a new buyer while the liquidation was proceeding. As we’ve seen on his Linkedin profile, Cross has worked for LSH for 22 years, but that hasn’t stopped him branching out, because from 7 June 2016 until 1 February 2018 he was a director of Leisure and Development Ltd, the main vehicle for Paul and Rowena Williams’ property empire.
According to the documents filed with Companies House, Cross’ address is given as Plas Glynllifon, and his Country of residence as Wales; yet his Linkedin profile tells us that he lives in Northampton. Can’t both be right, can they?
Anyway, Cross ceased to be a director of Leisure and Development Ltd on 1 February, when the company and its assets – including the Radnorshire Arms Hotel in Presteigne – were allegedly taken over by convicted thief and fraudster Keith Harvey Partridge and Sukhbinder Singh Heer (of whom more later).
If Plas Glynllifon has really been bought by Paul and Rowena Williams, and everything’s tickety-boo, and with him no longer a director of Leisure and Development Ltd, why isn’t Cross back at his day job with Lambert Smith Hampton? Or does LSH still have some interest in Plas Glynllifon?
This may be a good point to give some information on the recent history of Plas Glynllifon.
On 7 November 2000 a company called Glynllifon Ltd was Incorporated with Companies House. Next, on 2 April 2003, this company bought Plas Glynllifon from Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor, with a mortgage from the NatWest Bank.
This company stayed afloat – with help from Cyngor Gwynedd and the Welsh Development Agency – until the AIB group called in a receiver 3 July 2013. Glynllifon Ltd finally slipped beneath the waves when it was dissolved 24 June 2017. By which time Plas Glynllifon had been bought by Paul and Rowena Williams.
Their company Plas Glynllifon Ltd bought the mansion on 19 April 2016 for £630,000. Though you might not know that from the title document, which simply refers to “land adjoining Glynllifon College”. To complicate matters there is no map available from the Land Registry.
But Cyngor Gwynedd assures me that Title No CYM127981 covers Plas Glynllifon.
Since the purchase of the mansion just over two years ago, Plas Glynllifon Ltd has taken out no less than six mortgages or loans with our old friends, the pay day lenders of the commercial property market, Together Commercial Finance Ltd. So maybe it’s time to take a closer look at this company.
Together Commercial Finance Ltd was until very recently known as the Lancashire Mortgage Corporation, part of Jerrold Holdings Ltd controlled by Henry Moser. Censured by the City watchdog in 2012 and with a host of complaints against it from customers – even a petition! – this group is the lender of last resort for those who cannot borrow from banks and more reputable lenders. Designed for people like Paul and Rowena Williams.
To confirm what I’m saying just do a quick search for Lancashire Mortgage Corporation, Blemain Finance, Monarch Recoveries, Henry Moser. Interestingly, Together/Lancashire seems to allow buildings to lie empty, which is what we see happening in Powys and just over the border; and, may be the fate awaiting Plas Glynllifon.
When I’ve got a few days to spare I might try to work out how much Paul and Rowena Williams owe to Together Commercial Finance Ltd. (I hope my calculator’s up to it!)
◊
MEANWHILE, BACK IN POWYS
Despite the sunny weather enjoyed by all at Glynllifon clouds appeared on Rowena Williams’ Facebook page with voices from the recent past, reminders of the businesses they used to – perhaps still – own on both sides of the central border.
Oh! what a tangled web we weave . . .
Be that as it may, in the official, Williams, version, the properties owned by Leisure and Development Ltd have all passed to Keith Harvey Partridge and Sukhbinder Singh Heer. Now Partridge we know is a convicted thief who had to downsize following his spell in prison. But what of Heer?
At one time he seems to have been a high flier, a managing partner at accountancy firm RSM Robson Rhodes, but he left under a cloud in May 2006 and the once ambitious company he’d led was taken over by Grant Thornton in 2007. The Financial Times referred to Heer’s “sudden resignation”. (This may be the link, but there’s a paywall.)
So how has Heer kept lupus lupus from his portal since bankrupting RSM Robson Rhodes?
In 2011 he joined a firm based in Assembly Square, Cardiff. And although this report from WalesOnline mentions Heer’s association with RSM Robson Rhodes it neglects to tell us the circumstances of his departure. Which is no less than I would expect from a ‘news source’ that does little more than repeat press releases.
Later, with Sukhpal Kaur Heer, perhaps his wife, he formed SSH Associates Ltd. This company entered the ring 5 July 2013 and went down without landing a blow on 26 April 2016. Sukhpal Kaur Heer was involved with another firm that seemed to take a dive, H & H Ventures Ltd.
Another company of Sukhbinder Singh Heer’s that formed and dissolved without apparently doing any business was Premium Hotels Ltd; Incorporated 28 June 2013 and ‘dissolved via voluntary strike-off’ 31 May 2016. The other director of this spectacularly inert enterprise was Keith Harvey Partridge.
If nothing else, this tells us that Partridge and Heer have known each other since at least 2013. But when did Partridge drift into the joint consciousness of Paul and Rowena Williams?
If we are to believe Rowena Williams she met Partridge just once . . . perhaps when he skidded to a halt outside the Radnorshire Arms in answer to their ‘Property Empire for Sale!’ advert in Exchange and Mart.
But as I mentioned in the previous post, Partridge stayed a number of times at the Radnorshire Arms, and female staff there found him “unpleasant”. I have since learnt that he also stayed at Mortimers Cross Inn, Leominster, after Paul and Rowena Williams bought the place in October 2001. So Rowena Williams either suffers from amnesia or she’s a liar.
(I bet it took you a long time to work out which!)
On other fronts, local politicians have been involved. The Tory MP for Brecon and Radnor, Chris Davies, responded thus: “I have received a number of emails from constituents who are concerned about this and have asked me to find out more. To begin with I have written to the owners requesting an urgent meeting at both of the sites to be able to discuss what their plans are and to gain further information. Furthermore, I have written to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in the Welsh Government to request further information and I have submitted a Freedom of Information request to gain this information as well.”
The obvious question is – ‘Who does Chris Davies think owns the Radnorshire Arms?’ If he thinks it’s Team Williams then they’ll say, ‘We’ve sold it – nothing to do with us, guv.’ And if he’s written to Partridge then I suspect he’s got a long wait.
Local Lib Dem AM Kirsty Williams, answered with, “Obviously these allegations are hugely concerning. I just wanted to let you know that I have raised them with the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport, Ken Skates AM, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport, Dafydd Elis-Thomas AM and the BCU Commander for Powys, Superintendent Jon Cummins.”
So there you are – Ken ‘Flint Ring’ Skates and Lord ‘Principality’ Thomas are on the case! What could possibly go wrong?
Stop laughing! It’s not nice to laugh.
◊
THINKING ALOUD
We’ve assembled quite a cast here.
First, we have Paul and Rowena Williams, who buy properties, then sell them to themselves at greatly inflated prices. Which apparently is just fine, nothing wrong in this at all.
The funding for these purchases comes from a finance company with an appalling reputation and track record.
The Williams properties outside of north Gwynedd appear to have been sold to a company run by a convicted thief and con man and a man who single-handedly destroyed a thriving and ambitious accountancy firm before setting up what suspicious souls might view as shell companies.
These businessmen then leave the properties they ‘own’ – often listed buildings – empty and decaying. But not to worry, because word is that all the valuables have been removed.
Meanwhile, and having, allegedly, divested themselves of everything outside of the Caernarfon area Paul and Rowena Williams focus their attentions on the Glynllifon estate, now estimated to be a £20 million project. I shall repeat that for the hard of reading – the estimate for the Glynllifon project is twenty million pounds.
This estimate, remember, comes from people who are up to their eyes in debt, and they’re not in debt to your friendly High Street bank!
Talking of debt, why do all roads lead to Manchester, and the city’s property/financial sector? What are the connections?
Is Lambert Smith Hampton still involved with Plas Glynllifon or is Dudley Cross freelancing? Cross ceased to be a director of Leisure and Development Ltd on 1 February following the ‘takeover’ by Partridge and Heer, so if he is involved with Glynllifon shouldn’t he now be a director of Plas Glynllifon Ltd?
The pictures I’ve seen from the Open Days, pictures of four-poster beds, tasteless statues and Louis XIV pool tables, may have drawn ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the carefully primed crowd, but it could all be packed onto the backs of a few lorries one dark night. How much has been spent on Plas Glynllifon that cannot be removed?
A point may soon be reached when Paul and Rowena Williams go to Cyngor Gwynedd, the ‘Welsh’ Government, maybe a few other bodies, saying, ‘We’ve run out of money, you can’t leave this wonderful old building half finished now can you – so slip us a few mill’. If there’s resistance, then public opinion will be mobilised and pressure applied.
Given the disappointments of the past two decades, first with Glynllifon Ltd from 2001 to 2013, then the Wynnborn nonsense in 2015, they may be hoping there’s a desire in official quarters to just get the bloody place finished, and so money will be handed over.
I repeat my advice to Cyngor Gwynedd and the ‘Welsh’ Government: You are dealing with unscrupulous people – just check their records – so make it clear to them NOW that there will be no public funding to complete Plas Glynllifon.
Unless of course, such promises have already been made. In which case, we should indeed weep for Wales.
♦ end ♦
Jac i know everything about what goes on.
Then tell me. editor@jacothenorth.net
Do send this info to Private Eye. I’m sure they’d be interested.
Yes, but I have great faith in Cyngor Gwynedd and their excellent Chief Executive, Dilwyn Williams. The Williams scammers need to watch out Big Time whilst Dilwyn’s on their case. Don’t worry these scumbags have it coming to them!
Have been searching planning applications with Cornwall CC re Polvellan Manor. Two applications to build residential units (lots!!), both refused, the latter as late as 2017. Perhaps that’s why the focus has now switched to Glynllifon?
As I’ve said before, Cyngor Gwynedd are on the gang’s case and they will get nowhere and nothing. They might as well pack up their Travelling Circus and go off into the sunset (or even Wolverhampton!)
If that is the case, that they’ll get short thrift from CSG – as you say “they will get nowhere and nothing”. Surely it’s equally important that they get called to book for their past criminal activities, both in Cymru and elsewhere.
Moving the problem on is not the answer, just a lazy short term solution. That’s a bit like moving paedophile priests on to another diocese.
They don’t just need to be stopped in an area, they need to be prosecuted and stopped permanently, and lessons sent out to similar criminals and shysters.
These are the sorts of underground problems that Ein Gwlad will address in the fullness of time. There is a need for purges on many levels. Present politicians (of ALL parties in Cymru) just slumber and turn a blind eye. That is patently wrong. There’s a need for a bit of political domestos to clean the place up.
Oh yes, Brychan, now you’ve pointed out who Sarah Cartmel is I remember; poor ecology reports for planning applications to Powys.
Preaching to the converted but can’t resist a moderated rant!
However well intentioned a consultant originally starts out their remit is to get a client what it is they want – planning permission, cheap purchase price, etc. Things get glossed over or downgraded, anything worth saving gets mitigation not worth the paper it is written on. (A small price to pay for working in some lovely places?) Planning Officers, if like those in Powys, often don’t have a clue and are under a huge workload so fail to consult “in house” experts or worse do consult but apply pressure to accept the reports and add conditions to permission, which is contrary to WG planning policy.
The problem is the planning system is weighted heavily in developers favour even when enforcement is applied plus Lesley Griffiths and pals don’t apply their own environmental legislation as beyond Cardiff our culture and biodiversity is a “resource”, ie, they have monetary value to developers and the Welsh kitty, though, as we know, in this case the developer wants money from Welsh coffers but without offering any meaningful return.
Jac, the link for Herefordshire planning.
https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/info/200142/planning_services/planning_application_search?search-term=registered%20in%20the%20last%207%20days&search-service=
In the “search for application” box enter Mortimers Cross Inn, also try Ledwyche Springs. Sorry haven’t taken you straight to places but multiple applications with interesting refusal histories and the odd change of applicant during “ownership” of property. I must apologise for my dodgy maths, it isn’t 20+ yrs but 14 yrs traceable Dudley connection locally.
Sometimes you have to pay extra for the scientific report to state the answer what the government agency wants in advance. If a proper ‘blind’ study comes up with an undesirable answer, then it’s kept secret.
An example is (I am told) that there is a “secret” document in Natural Resources Wales written by an epidemiologist (the study of the transmission of disease) and it’s about the fungus that kills larch trees.
There is debate about how to prevent the spread of the infection in forestry plantations and the best scientific studies were in Germany where some infected plantations the disease dies out if left untouched, and some infected plantations where the best policy is felling to prevent further spread. They key to which policy to implement where depends not only on ‘pockets of infection’ but also on how accessible certain plantations are to the public, a major transmission vector. Natural spread is by spores in misty wind so major cities or un-forested uplands act as a barrier to spread.
There are German computer models which predict the spread and NRW commissioned study plugged the Welsh forests data in to see what the best policy is in certain areas. The model generated was very different from what actually happened. The explanations being..
(a) The disease was first introduced to Wales into the Afan valley, directly from Hampshire having leapfrogged the Forest of Dean, most probably spores on the wheels of mountain bikes, a prominent human transmission vector.
(b) The preventative felling further north and west in the Brecon Beacons (the prevailing moist wind direction) was ‘too far’ for the spores to transmit naturally, and the infection here was introduced by transporting contaminated wood.
(c) Subsequent pockets of outbreak in forests in north Wales and Carmarthenshire was also due to ‘tourist’ contamination, and a notable feature of infection was along rivers (down streaming), the human factor being canoeists.
So, the most expensive cost to woodland in Wales (millions in lost timber) is actually down to tourism. The report was never published. FoI request?
OFF TOPIC…….looked at the Steve Bannon interview with Maitlis
If you liked that you will like this Péter Szijjártó interview with Maitlis……..
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/06/30/xenophobia-hungarian-minister-chides-unbalanced-one-sided-bbc-anchor-pro-eu-pro-migration-rant/
Maitlis hates the law and democracy……what a truly horrible person!!!
Saw it. He was very impressive. But that woman is so eaten up with obsessions that she’s become her own worst enemy. So she can easily be picked off and exposed for the bigot she is by anyone with well-marshalled arguments who can stay cool. It’s a form of intellectual bull-fighting.
What I wouldn’t give to have a few politicians like that guy representing me. Instead, I’ve got Jeremy Miles and Christina Rees locally. Enough said! Thanks for the link, great watch with my morning crumpet.
@ Stan …….check this out with your next crumpet!
Seriously……it’s a field day for psychologists studying the cognitive dissonance of EU open border feminists……..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzfPVQJ8C2g
I think though, psychologists have given up on Swedish feminists …..they and Sweden itself are too far gone from sanity to do anything……….
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11861/sweden-feminism
That article about Sweden is nonsense.
There has been oscillation female majority in the political chambers in Sweden since 1971 and to try to impose the ‘Anglo-Saxon class system guilt-complex’ type of feminism onto Scandinavian culture is just silly.
Feminism in Sweden is a cultural norm, inherent in that of equality and egality. Having spent time living and working in Sweden I found that both within politics and in the workplace, gender is ‘blind’. It’s hard to have these issues if the office toilets are multi-gender by design, having your female boss invite you over to a naked sauna is not unusual and nothing to do with body objectification, and things like equal paternity rights have existed for nearly two generations.
Please do not impose the ‘me-too’ white middle class victim wallowing onto a country that’s not only addressed such issues, but also surpassed them for generations.
As for the ‘Islamic issue’, that will happen. Islam is a religion and the Swedish social, political, and education system is blind to such things, despite people trying to whip up division that does not exist. This is how a Swedish child ends up being adopted by a rapist of the Muslim faith. The alternative is ‘selective social policy based on race, what is preached by social workers in the UK. That’s not the solution. The solution is to jail the rapist, whether he is Muslim, one legged, cross eyed, or sun a worshiper on the equinox.
A poor attempt to transpose Anglo-Saxon victimhood with a race agenda onto a society which cares nothing for either. Wales needs to look to Sweden for social policy. Forget England, they have no example to offer.
Facts here..
https://sweden.se/society/sweden-gender-equality/
To give an example of what feminism means in Sweden, legally mandated quotas by gender do not exist in Sweden, it’s against the constitution. This is very different from ‘all-women shortlists’ that so-called feminists in Wales seek to promote.
I think Sweden has changed quite a bit since you got laid in that sauna in 1971…….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgURG9c9CtY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elzVRdc2mc8
Swedes have been completely brainwashed through their education system and media. I don’t think Wales has got this far yet. Western Europe is pretty much fucked up and I don’t think it can pull out of the Cultural Marxist noise dive(the Cultural Marxists have all congregated at the front of the plane and have taken control, we need to push them towards the back of the plane or better still throw them out of the plane! We have a slim chance in Wales to forge our own destiny and not be sucked into the Cultural Marxist vortex of self destruction. Unfortunately the Cultutal Marxists and feminists have taken control of Wales’ nationalist party Plaid Cymru, who will without a doubt go into coalition with Welsh Labour in the event of Welsh Labour not getting a majority. Leanne Wood will not resign if she isn’t First Minister – she stills get’s off watching Borgen dvd collection of coalition socialist politics. Her dream unabated – one day she will will be the First Minister of the second feminist government in the world! Here’s the first…….
https://www.unwatch.org/walk-shame-swedens-first-feminist-government-don-hijabs-iran/
https://www.therebel.media/sweden_actually_has_a_feminist_snow_plowing_system_and_it_s_a_total_failure
Cultural Marxism combined with feminism is the gradual process of destroying all traditions, languages, religions, individuality, government, family, law and order in order to re-assemble society in the future as a communist utopia. This Utopia will have no notion of gender, traditions, morality, god or even family or the state…..and sanity!
This video by Michael Black is worth a watch …….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkjNAFUgLwU
I do hope our country has a chance……let’s get behind it…..family and country the way forward!
I should have read a bit more on Land and Heritage website!
http://theleesfamily.org.uk/uncategorized/bats-in-my-belfry/#more-167
Working with local bat ecologist, Sarah Cartmel, Land and Heritage have been able to facilitate renovation works to the main roof and upper sections of the mansion.
In that link, Land and Heritage says, “Heating a section of the cellar has proved highly popular nursery for young lesser horseshoes (bats)”.
No. This will kill them.
Lesser horseshoe bats hibernate at a low temperature. Natural roosts like cave temperature in Wales in winter are 11C, but the ideal roost temperature for them is 8C. If you heat the roost during the winter, they fail to hibernate, resulting in them remaining active at a time when there’s no food available, and they will die. This is defined in the Habitats Directive enforced by the Wildlife and Countryside Act and subsequently enhanced by Conservation of Species and Habitats Regulations in Wales.
I’m surprised that these ‘experts’ have made such a destructive recommendation, especially when the Bat Conservation Trust offer a free service. Perhaps this should be flagged up to Jean Matthews the mammal ecologist for Natural Recourses Wales, and Hannah Lumberjack Blythyn AM the Minister for Environment.
Heating the cellars at Glynllifon will destroy the bat roost in the cellars, and to do so is a criminal offence.
I bow to your superior knowledge, Brychan. I shall use this. But as I’ve suggested Land & Heritage may have been formed solely to provide Paul and Rowena Williams with ‘reports’ and ‘surveys’ of their dictation.
My interest in bats is due to an incident yesterday where my wife found one in the outside lavatory, floating in the bowl. After drying him off and naming him Moses, she fed him cat food and put him in a cardboard box until nightfall. He seemed healthy enough, making plenty of noise.
For some reason she thought that he could only take off from a hanging upside down position (I had no idea), so with him in her hand, and keeping a close eye on the cats that had gathered, she wandered around the back garden looking for a suitable spot when, whoosh! Moses just took off and flew away.
Dr Sarah Cartmel, Cymerau Isaf, Blaenau Ffestiniog, LL41 4BN.
01766 762 437
07717 661 839
She has her own consultancy company called Cartmel Ecology Limited (08503118) which has obviously entered into an arrangement with Land & Heritage and the Williams plans/scams.
She resigned as a director of Ecology Matters (Wales) Ltd in 2014, and resigned as a director of Cofnod-North Wales Environmental Service in 2012. These were ‘data processing’ companies on studies into stuff like counting the numbers of red squirrels.
Perhaps she can explain why heating a bat roost in the cellars during winter is a good idea?
Brychan, I’m about to use the piece on bats in the new post I’m working on but I can’t see any reference to temperature in the Land and Heritage piece. I can see your point, but you use specific temperatures while they don’t mention any. I shall have to think how I can word this.
http://landandheritage.com/blog/bats-in-my-belfry/#more-167
Search for ‘heating’.
It does not say what specific temperature they are heating the cellar up to, but the natural temperature of a cellar is like a cave (8-11C) in the natural habitat, cool throughout the year avoiding summer heat and also winter frosts. Heating a cellar in winter above the natural ambient level will prevent effective hibernation, this, at a time food supply is non-existent (flying insects).
Can’t answer the LSH/Dudley question but referring back to Mortimers Cross Inn it is interesting to see it’s him signing the planning applications on behalf of LSH, Isn’t it odd that a company would always assign the same person to Williamses for 20+ years?
Planning applications for works at the various listed properties both in Powys and Gwynedd seem almost non-existent during The Gang’s stewardship. You may get away with it for a Grade II but if flouting Grade I and getting away with it serious questions need to be asked. The gardens/park are also Grade I listed so I was interested to read that they’ve “restored” the terrace.
The need for chalets/lodges is definitely an MO, so Gwynedd beware of the need to put these in and at same time improve habitats, see article about Seiont Manor dated Dec 2017 which mentions a Simon Humphreys, chief ecologist of Land and Heritage: https://www.dailypost.co.uk/business/business-news/owners-gwynedd-hotel-ready-push-13982220
An internet search for Simon Humphreys shows him as a director of Land and Heritage Ltd! This appears to be a company set up by reputable professionals so are they being duped or do you need to dig further Jac?
Glynllifon grounds are not only Grade I listed but are a designated SAC because of the bats. (Live linked from the cellar on the open days with Natural Resources Wales approval?) Technically the Williams cannot do anything to any of it without NRW approval. Get the local wildlife trust involved and ask NRW if someone involved at Glynllifon has a European Protected Species permit for the place.
Do you have a link for the Mortimers Cross planning applications?
As for Simon Humphreys, yes he is a director of the new company Land & Heritage Ltd, but he’s worked for Paul and Rowena Williams before, on the Polvellan Manor project in Cornwall. Then he was working for Pell Frischmann. I wouldn’t be surprised if the promise of plenty of work in north Wales made him set up his own company.
In fact, according to his Linkedin profile he’s still working for Pell Frischmann. So Land & Heritage is a sideline. Maybe PF didn’t want to be too closely associated with Paul and Rowena Williams.
Another director of Land & Heritage Ltd is Matt Jackson, the ‘expert’ who decided that parts of the Glynllifon site are unsafe. What this means is that Team Williams will insist on it being sold to them at a reduced price.
Land & Heritage is in the pockets of Paul and Rowena Williams. It will make any ‘findings’ they want it to make. Consequently Land & Heritage is utterly discredited.
For those of you who believe the empty business rates on these listed properties [if they are all listed?] – there is no rates payable on empty listed buildings.
The holding costs for these are low. Cut off the electric/water/gas nothing to pay as well. Repair and maintenance is optional.
Just hold and fold and wait until a WG bod comes along with the goodies [grants and all that]. As they say governments make the best customers – an idiot with lots of money.
As for those others buying that dog farm are those people buying from themselves? The articles and blog seems to imply they are already living there? Raising cash for a charity which then buys off them. Great deal [© Trump] you get to stay there and costs you nothing. Obviously need enough suckers to donate whether they are genuine or not. Also should it be allowed as a productive [livestock/arable?] farm is being taken out of production?
Sometimes it’s what’s missing that exposes a fraud.
Missing 1.
If you think about it, if you were genuinely going to do a multi-million pound restoration at a grade one listed mansion, you’d get a proper PR consultancy on board. You’d get someone like Llewelyn Bowen (C4) or Lucy Worsely (BBC) or Aled Samuel (S4C) to do a TV programme about it. They pay a tidy sum just for the filming and it’s good publicity. When I see Williams just do a piece to camera for a Daily Post podcast, during which he’s got an un-ironed dirty shirt, unshaven, and mumbling like a Wolverhampton chip shop owner. Even the still photos are not even up to the standard of bog standard surveyor if you were buying a suburban semi-detached. Perhaps the ‘well oiled historians’ and commercial broadcasters have already smelt a rat and decided not to get involved.
Missing 2.
There are of course, exemptions on listing to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act. This means you can ‘bundle-up’ provision of a lift shaft with other works to circumvent internal restrictions that come with listed status. This allows, for example, CADW to install access ramp installations at the English castles. DDA requirements trump most restrictions, and you can’t get lots of stars for a hotel that does not allow disabled access.
Missing 3.
There is a newly installed cast of a Disney Lion on the front veranda. A planning application by the previous owners was rejected, as the south facing aspect of the site is a ‘protected view’. Is there a retrospective planning application?
Missing 4.
The most expensive investment in a top-notch hotel is the kitchens and the central heating system, also the key to long term preservation of the structure. A 5* hotel needs a 5* restaurant. A serious restoration would involve getting planning permission for the necessary plant in the internal courtyard. You’d be mad to spend cash on carpets, curtains, bedroom adornment and faux sculptures, without first do the works for this.
These ‘missing’ issues were all addressed by the man who used to deliver sand and concrete blocks (Leekes) many years ago in Tonypandy. He went on to found a chain of home furnishing stores and eventually bought a period mansion (former Hensol hospital) and renovated a period building similar to Glynllifon, into a top-notch hotel.
This is how it is done.
https://www.valeresort.com
Nothing missing.
Brychan, you describe the chief honcho as looking like a Wolverhampton chip shop owner. Should that not in fact read a Wolverhampton chicken takeaway shop owner, as you described earlier? (RRAD Ltd)
Among Sikhs, ‘Singh’ denotes a man and ‘Kaur’ a woman. So your Heers are most likely husband and wife.
You learn something every day!
Jac, your recent tweet refers to attack on Welsh language by a proposed human and dog sanctuary ( wow! or is that bow wow) somewhere in West Wales ( their words not yours ) That phone number is 01594 which is Forest of Dean, which might arguably be part of an enlarged Wales but hardly West ! Perhaps these prospective colonists are hanging out in the woods around Coleford or Lydney waiting for a Skates driven handout for their new social enterprise on a yet to be acquired spread in Gogledd Penfro or Ceredigion. Does anyone recognise the landscape in that photo on the website ? http://huckleberryfarm.co.uk/
They are currently based in the Forest of Dean, but planning to buy this place
..and that looks like a tidy property which should be put to good working use not some frilly goodlifer operation. Don’t blame the dogs ( or the humans who feel they may need therapy) but the spivs who will set out to make a bundle out of this are likely to do so by conning the public out of donations or some crowdfunded “investment” as well as touching old Ken Skater, DET and some other dimwit minister for a wad of notes. Good test for how barking our ministers may be.
They are trying to raise funding.
I didn’t watch any of last night’s fest only saw a clip on the news. Didn’t hear anyone mention that England were beaten by a Belgian XI, presumably the same Belgium that got turned over spectacularly by our minnow nation in the Euros in 2016. Odd that innit ?
Ryan Gigs was a studio pundit on ITV. He kept referring to the dire England performance against Belgium as ‘we’. When he bothers to turn up, who does he work for ?
Framåt Sverige.
Many thanks for your report on Glynllifon. Gwynedd Council should listen to your findings and not hand out tax payers money to people who prove that they think only of themselves and not the actual projects. I do believe that they have had enough money and they should be made to prove themselves before any further grants are paid out, remembering the list of hotels they have left in ruins.
Another worry, one I should perhaps have mentioned in my post, is that Plas Glynllifon may be taken to a stage where to complete the project becomes dependent on a development of lodges or chalets. In other words, blackmail will be applied in order to get planning permission.
Jac, don’t worry! Thanks to your brilliant exposes these people will get nowhere by attempting such ridiculous tricks.
Don’t worry Jac. Cyngor Gwynedd are far to astute and forewarned about these shysters to give them a bean. I have personally warned the CX of Gwynedd to steer well clear, and I do still carry some influence. Other people of note from the Caernarfon area are also up to speed re the Williams Gang. If necessary we would take to the barricades to root them out!
I’d still like to know how Paul and Rowena Williams got involved with Plas Glynllifon. I’d also like clarification on the role of Lambert Smith Hampton. And Dudley Cross; was he representing LSH when a director of a Williams company or was he doing it off his own bat?
I met Dudley at the “get the locals on our side” day. He was introducing the plans for Plas Bereton. He said that the drawings were the first concept drawings prepared by “our architects”. I made it clear that the plans to divert the straight cycle path to a zig-zag route at Plas Brereton were disgusting. When I questioned him about the possibility of changing the name of Seiont Manor back to Llwyn Brain he said “you will need to talk to the owners”
I spoke to a person that visited on the day, and a lady on the site was including babies when taking comments from a group and the number of people in the party
The whole thing was suspicious- why would you let 2000 people to trample over “newly decorated” 5* bedrooms??
Why are all the ornaments and soft furnishings in place in the bedrooms while the work on the dining room hasn’t started??
Again, I ask, is Dudley Cross working there for Lambert Smith Hampton or is it a personal sideline?
The Open Day was to impress people with gaudy and colourful furnishings that can all be removed in a night.
And, as you say, to get the locals onside. Because there will come a point when blackmail will be applied. Paul and Rowena Williams, Dudley Cross and the rest of the gang will either demand money to compete the job. Or else they’ll come up with a scheme for houses, flats, chalets, lodges or God knows what else which they’ll say they must have in order to fund the remainder of the project. Using the threat that if they don’t get their way they’ll have to leave the project unfinished.
They’ll hope for a public outcry in their support from people who haven’t seen through them and are impressed with the superficial improvements made to Plas Glynllifon.
Keep up the pressure Jac. It is all incredulous. Yet nobody in the “WAG giveaway our money corner shop” seems to be stirring. which is disgraceful and just as despicable as the awful events you describe.
Expecting some “stirring” from the WAG Handouts Dept is a bit much ! These people appear to thrive on being a soft touch for wideboys(and girls) and coming up with ingenious explanations when all goes pearshaped or is evidently a case of public assets disposed through a ridiculously cheap deal. Those 2 comics on the Bremner Show used to do parodies of senior public servants years ago, little did we know that today such beasts roam in multitudes in the corridors at Y Cynulliad.
The big question to ask WAG is, ‘when you dole out these grants, do you use due diligence?’ Kenny ‘Twat’ should ask himself a lot of questions, the first is am I up to the job?
Also if the BBC are involved, why no questions by they’re reporters, or is it an opportunity to make cheep TV?
“Due diligence” is a term to describe a “service” offered by shyster accountants as a means of extracting chunky fees from clients. Where a proposition is clean then due diligence is a relatively simple exercise, however as we know too well the borderline and downright deceptive propositions need hefty massaging of underlying assumptions and an elastic use of risk assessment measures. Just a bunch of numbers which muppets like dear old Skater and his useless underlings can’t fathom due to their serious lack of intellectual horsepower so have no real means of challenging anything in an effective way.
While pouring out my scorn, let me digress for a moment and pay serious tribute to Jac for his terrific efforts in putting this series together and indeed so much that he has done over the years. I could go all George Galloway ( vis his address to a certain S Hussein) and hail Jac’s sustained indefatigability, well yes let’s do so ! It’s nice and sunny ( bloody hot really) out there and it’s a good day to celebrate the efforts of one of our own.
Raise a Malbec or a cwrw Cymraeg, we all salute you !
I second that wholeheartedly, Dafis. This has been a first rate piece of investigative journalism yet again by Jac. If things go to form we can expect Shippo and Parry to do “scoops” on Paul and Rowena Williams in 2020, by which time the shit should have really hit the fan.
Well said Dafis. The occasional plonker / dipstick / wally / muppet who tries to criticise Jac on this blog ends up embarrassing himself / herself. Keep up the good work Jac.
The Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon and Radnor, CHRIS DAVIES, dear god man, when you get a simple fact like that wrong, it has to make you wonder, what else you have
Correct, but of no significance to the narrative, which is correct. You sound desperate.
And why are you impersonating me with Jacofthenorth@symail.co.uk?
Says the man writing under an alias ? All of this is pretty much speculation I could send you an email saying ANYTHING and you would add it to the story! hahahaha if you had the bollocks you would have gone to the open day and spoke to them but its easier being a keyboard warrior and pretending to be a journalist 🙂
Oh, dear, dear! You’re getting angry. My name is Royston Jones, everyone knows that. Now tell us who you are behind your alias.
If anything I’ve written is untrue then let them sue. Simple.
But we both know they won’t, because the information I’ve been give is kosher, the rest is in official records.
why is it that you give false information on the registration of your domain such as mobile number that does not exist, a land line number in Shrewsbury and also advertise a false address ? Why is it that you are giving false information ? this is Kosher unlike the vile that you have been printing. I think the net might be closing in on you now Jac good luck with that one
Jac, I don’t know who this joker is but it ain’t me !
Cause I can LOL…As for the rest of your stuff I find it interesting..Have the police picked up on it yet?
Who knows? They may be building a case as we speak.
I have just realised what has happened, yoou donkey..the other steve donnelly sign in with my mail address that you gave him…Doh !
Oh dear, you weren’t amusing to begin with, and now you’re close to being blocked.
Jacm Chris Davies MP is a Tory!
Diolch.
A correction: Chris Davies MP is a Tory. I am led to understand that he has an interesting background which might bear investigating.
Done.