Don’t panic, this isn’t about US politics. Following information received it’s an update to something I wrote back in 2020.
As you will understand, I’m sure, what I’d promised for Monday, ‘Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse’, will now be delayed. (And anyway, I’d forgotten that Monday is a Bank Holiday.)
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RECAP
In December 2020 I put out Lucky Gwynedd – More ‘Investors’! Scroll down to ‘The Phoenix Hotel, Abersoch’ and you’ll get the background to what you’re going to read.
In a nutshell, chancers from N W England had bought the old White Hall Hotel in Abersoch and had big plans, expensive plans. I wrote in that earlier piece:
This establishment closed in 2004 or 2005, inevitably fell into disrepair, and was eventually demolished in the early part of 2016. In the report I’ve linked to we read, “A 40-bedroom hotel and spa will now be built in its place and is set to open in 2018”.
Well, 2018 came and went. It’s now 2026, and it’s still not finished.
Two of the principals behind the project were: Charles Marshall Openshaw and Anthony John Hayton. Each had a string of failed companies to their name. I mentioned one of Openshaw’s companies, Rooftop Solutions Ltd, going bust in 2012 and owing almost half a million quid.
And yet, it seemed that Messrs Openshaw and Hayton were welcomed by Cyngor Gwynedd and certain agencies in Corruption Bay as bona fide investors with a string of glittering successes to their names.
And also getting positive, uncritical write-ups in the local media.
UPDATE 24.05.2026: You can get your very own piece of Abersoch – a beach hut is for sale at £200,000.
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CON MEN, POLITICIANS, BANKRUPTS
Let’s start the update proper with a piece that appeared last July in Boutique Hotelier. The property is now known as Tŷ Gwyn. The article mentions a series of delays, and suggests that the original plan may have been to lease or sell the individual rooms.
This of course is a model we’ve encountered before, perhaps most notably with con man Gavin Lee Woodhouse, from Yorkshire. He bought run-down hotels from Llandudno to Tenby, and was the inspiration behind the Afan Valley Adventure Resort which now employs thousands. Or maybe not.
To jog your memories, here’s something I put out around the time I was writing about Woodhouse.
Labour got hammered earlier this month in the Senedd elections, but you’ll be delighted to hear that Skates and Irranca-Davies were both re-elected. No doubt Plaid’s new team will be seeking advice from these financial whizz-kids.
In the Boutique Hotelier article, you’ll see that the sooper-dooper new “hotel and apartment complex” at Abersoch will be run by Bespoke Hotels of Warrington.
Problem is . . . Bespoke Hotels International Ltd was Dissolved in January. Then again, it might be Bespoke Hotels (North West) Ltd, Dissolved in February ’22. Or maybe it’s . . .
And what of the two entrepreneurs who kicked off this project, Charles Marshall Openshaw and Anthony John Hayton?
Well, it’s sad news there, too. Both were declared bankrupt just before Christmas. Below are the notices from the The London Gazette.
So who’s running things now? Who owns the Tŷ Gwyn hotel and apartment complex?
According to the Land Registry title document the property is now owned by Providence Gate Abersoch Ltd. But in March this year the company’s name changed to Abersoch Development Ltd.
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INTRODUCING ANIL KUMAR PITALIA
Abersoch Development Ltd, which bought the project in July 2022, is owned by Anil Kumar Pitalia. Here’s Pitalia’s Linkedin profile. He has many companies. Not all successful; here’s just a few of those that have gone to the wall.
The latest accounts for Abersoch Development Ltd (year ending 31.03.2025) show a ‘total equity’ deficit of £4,945,191. This might be accounted for by the loans, which are worth looking at.
The first two loans came from an outfit in Preston called E3C Solutions Ltd, 14.07.2022. Since renamed Quarry Rock Solutions Ltd. Another two from Gemini Finance Ltd, 23.08.2022, another back-street lender, this time in Liverpool.
All four loans, against the White House Hotel in Abersoch, were settled 05.04.2023. Then four more loans were taken out. Let’s look at the new loans.
The first, 14.03.2023 – three weeks before the first four loans were paid off – was with Crossbaron Ltd of Bolton. A company owned by – Anil Pitalia! Always nice when you can lend yourself money. Was this used to pay off the earlier loans?
The next, 21.07.2023, was with Lyell Trading Ltd of Cheltenham.
Closely followed by two loans, 25.07.2023, from Development Bank of Wales (DBW).
Which is somewhat confusing, because this response to a FoI request, dated 03.06.2024, says nothing has been offered.
I can only assume the FoI request went to the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ rather than to the DBW. In which case, the response is, strictly speaking, true, even though the DBW is controlled by the ‘Welsh Government’.
Was it a bit naughty not referring the inquirer to the DBW? Anyway . . .
Anil Pitalia has also branched out into charity work. Which always warms the cockles of my cynical old heart. His particular charity is The Pitalia Charitable Trust – previously The Visionary Charitable Trust – bringing succour to those in distress in the mythic Englandandwales . . . also India.
At the risk of sounding unkind, the objectives look a bit, well, pro forma; like they were downloaded from the internet. Or found in a solicitor’s drawer.
Turning to the finances, for the period ended 05.10.2022 we see a huge leap in the charity’s income.
This is accounted for in the accounts filed with the Charity Commission as you see below. Wasn’t that nice of him! Though I suppose it might be reasonable to ask, why so much in one dollop? Why so little before or since?
And perhaps, where did it come from?
So, I got to wondering what might explain this outpouring of charitable zeal. And the timeframe is interesting: Pitalia paid over four million pounds into his charity around the time he paid off loans and took on new ones.
He was a busy boy in 2022/23.
Whatever, and moving on . . . I couldn’t find a website for this charity, but the accounts filed with the Charity Commission for the years following the arrival of that huge sum tell us this:
Little seems to be going out to worthy causes; the charity could even be mistaken for an investment vehicle. But if so, then what might it be investing in?
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THE DEVELOPMENT BANK OF WALES
However we got here, the fact is that Anil Pitalia, through his company Abersoch Development Ltd, has obtained loans from the Development Bank of Wales, a body owned by the ‘Welsh Government’.
Over the years, I’ve been critical of the DBW, and ‘Welsh Government’ funding in general. Getting good publicity often seems to be more important than acting wisely; or of doing background checks on the companies and individuals seeking funding.
This approach has led to so many mistakes over the years. Earlier I mentioned Gavin Lee Woodhouse, con man and instigator of the Afan Valley Adventure Resort. One of the properties he bought was Caer Rhun.
And the ‘Welsh Government’ agreed a tourism grant of £500,000. That’s a grant, not a loan. Nothing to be repaid. (Though it was later insisted that no money was ever handed over.)
I’m convinced that the word is out among a certain class of ‘investor’ that Wales is a soft touch for getting your hands on public money. All you have to do is buy some old pile, send a press release to the media, promise investment/jobs/visitors, have your photo taken with a politician or two, and wait for the money to roll in.
Such people will inevitably be attracted when they hear of organisations desperate to get money out the door as proof they’re doing their job, coupled with an almost total absence of serious checks.
With the result that Welsh public funding that could have been better used will be wasted.
As for the Development Bank of Wales itself, I went to the accounts, to see what I could turn up. Not easy because what’s filed with Companies House (or certainly what appears on the CH website) is a sometimes messy photocopy.
But if I’m reading it right, then profit for the last financial year was half of the previous year. (Full accounts available here in pdf format.)
I believe the Development Bank of Wales is a dysfunctional body. I also believe that description extends to the grant-awarding system throughout the administration.
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CONCLUSION
My belief is that a competent and legitimate businessman or businesswoman coming to Wales with a viable project should be able to find funding from the usual commercial sources.
Too many of those who’ve been awarded loans or grants, or been given publicly-owned land, and other forms of help over the years, have been out-and-out crooks.
But even when the recipients of funding are genuine, there’s always the danger that money given to be spent on a project in Wales will be lost through some intra-group dealing and end up somewhere else.
The ‘Welsh Government’ and the Development Bank of Wales should therefore focus on funding identifiably Welsh businesses and Welsh entrepreneurs, especially young entrepreneurs, operating solely within Wales.
Because building up an indigenous Welsh economy must be a priority. Also, building on what we already have, such as agriculture. Will the new Plaid Cymru administration do better than its Labour predecessor in this regard? Not a hope.
Because Plaid’s SMs know little and care even less about business. And anyway, when you’re saving a planet, while simultaneously fighting fascism and defending women with penises from genocide, you don’t want distractions like the economy, and jobs.
♦ end ♦
© Royston Jones 2026
Recent comments are off-topic. The points being made have been made many times before. Now they’re getting personal and offensive. Comments are turned off.
Hiya my name is Kelly. I know about you from following your write ups of the Kidwelly funding farcical. I think you might be interested in what LocalMotion Carmarthen say they are doing.
I tried to email you but it would not send
Did you try editor@jacothenorth.net?
Being old and cynical I’m looking forward to your article next Monday but the title made me chuckle as it reminded me of the Mick Mccarthy ”it can” quote when he was challenged by a journalist after a dreadful run of results at Blackpool.
Things can always get even worse.
Believe me, things could get a whole lot worse.
Who remembers Nu Labour’s theme song “Things can only get better”? Performed by D-Ream, a member of which was the not-yet professor of theoretical physics, the non-Scottish, non-actor Brian Cox.
As a physicist he should hang his head in shame for releasing a song which makes claims contrary to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, that is that entropy and therefore disorder are always increasing in the universe. So no, Brian, things can in fact only get worse, not better!
Off-topic. AI generated note copied below. I think this story will run for a while. Did Nicola not wonder where the money for the £100,000 motor home came from?
“Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has issued a statement expressing that she is “angry, hurt, sad and very distressed” following the guilty plea of her estranged husband, Peter Murrell, to embezzling £400,310 from the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Murrell, the former party chief executive, admitted to using party funds between 2010 and 2022 to purchase luxury items, including a motorhome and cars, and was remanded in custody pending sentencing on June 23, 2026.
Sturgeon, who stepped down as an MSP earlier this month, stated she had “no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever” that Murrell was using SNP funds for personal purposes, adding that she was “fully cleared” by police investigation.
She described the situation as a “profound personal trauma” and emphasized that the crimes were not hers, noting she was “misled just as others were.”
Meanwhile, current SNP leader and First Minister John Swinney expressed “personal horror” over the crimes, calling it a “tough day” for the party and stating he never suspected Murrell of the embezzlement.
Opposition parties, including Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives, are pressing for further explanations regarding how the crimes went undetected during Murrell’s tenure and Sturgeon’s leadership.”
Back to sunny South Wales where tourists and day visitors have had a ball dumping their trash all over our open spaces. While some of the blight is down to visitors from “away” most of the culprits are from a short car journey within our country. They are disgraceful. No surprise that they chose not to vote or to make choices that will burn their sorry arses over the next couple of years. Country has mutated into a place full of bloated useless entitled wanchors. If it carries on like this we will need a Pol Pot to sort it out. Likes of Rhun, Dai Thomas &Co will be too nice.
Anyway back to Wynne, sorry brawd I had to get that off my chest. The Murrell/Sturgeon cockup has been hiding in plain sight for years. She was moving in a politically risky direction with a bit of rug munching on the side ( whispers reached Dafis’ radar c.2017) while Peter was exploring his own dark side with ventures into the bender/shirtlifter community which probably led to his need for more money. Nicola may have been blissfully unaware of his early ventures but there would come a time when a woman of her savvy and intelligence gathering capacity would have known that her hubby was ramping up his deviance and his financial cravings. So give us a break Nicola. You may have mugged ScotsPlod but us old cynics don’t roll over so easy.
They were always an odd couple, as a couple. It was about control. Alex Salmond saw the signs early on, and warned others in the party. Which may go some way to explaining why certain elements in the SNP turned on him.
Why can’t nationalist politicians hold themselves consciously to a higher standard than the vermin at Westminster? Keep your eyes on the fucking prize, you idiots. Repeat a mantra “I want independence for my country, resist urges to be yet another sleazy/deranged politician, convince my people to take that chance”.
Because they’re politicians; and they believe in compromise, in deals, and this means supping with the devil. The standards you’re demanding might be considered unrealistic, or ‘blinkered thinking’.
Also because they’re adopted a whole tote bag of insane causes and ishoos they will always find common cause with those who don’t give a shit about Wales. Unless it’s to use our country in the promotion of said causes and issues. Examples might be wind turbines and the rest, promoting the idea that men can have babies, open borders. By adopting these positions they abandon any pretence at being nationalists, or wanting independence.
That’s because the agenda they promote is the Globalist-Marxist plan to destroy Western nations. How can you want independence for a country those who’re directing your thinking plan to destroy?
I honestly don’t think they see the bigger plan, or appreciate what they’ve got involved with. For too many of them it’s student politics with a modicum of power.
There is also the idea I’m increasingly coming round to not seeing as too far fetched, that there are Deep State/Establishment plants within. You could not fashion a movement better designed to put people off independence than one espousing Sturgeon’s trans lunacies or Plaid’s “Fi yw Cymru” campaign with that be-burka’d bint (Arabic for daughter) veiling for the camera.
One cannot disregard that independence movements are inherently protests against established orthodoxy and order of the economic and political life of a state. It’s probably a sad inevitability that they will have some tendency to gravitate towards fringe ideas and movements operating from a position of less in the way of good faith and common sense.
It’s an indicator of how divorced Plaid is from the real feelings of the real public. Wittering on about a Wales filled with trans Muslims goes down well in the Bay bubble, but not so well in Bedwas or Blaenau Ffestiniog. And if that’s Plaid’s vision of independence, then independence will be, not only rejected, but actively fought against.
Where there is money…you will always find a thief!!!
Fabulous investigative reporting , should be live on Abersoch Facebook pages to reveal the “emperors clothes” of many that see Abersoch as a pot of gold!!
I too researched Mr Openshaw on Companies House at the time he started advertising Million pound apartments and Voila!! Why didn’t the local council?!
Sadly some people don’t love Abersoch as I do they just see it as a golden gateway .
Abersoch has had a lot of publicity over the years. Most of it positive when it’s in the London media. Consequently, many councillors are afraid of contradicting that narrative in case the Daily Mail gets hold of it and attacks them as ‘anti English’.
It fails me why anyone would give two shits what a universally ridiculed rag like the Mail thinks of them.
But it’s not “universally ridiculed”. And it often comes out with stories the Beeb and the rest prefer to ignore.
This isn’t a question of affiliation or partisanship, there’s numerous perfectly respectable conservative publications out there: the Times, Telegraph, Spectator, etc. The Mail is a sleazy, sensationalist, fear-mongering and blatantly biased tabloid, that even its own readers take the piss out of, going by the online edition’s comment section anyway. I should know, I’m one of them – strictly in a ‘for a bit of amusement’ sense. It’s harmless enough if you consume it while being fully aware of what it is.
I don’t buy the Mail, or read it, as such. I pick up items on X now and again. But online it has a serious presence; being regularly quoted in US podcasts and blogs I watch or listen to. Admittedly, these are of a ‘conservative’ or even MAGA bent, but still, the Mail travels.
Sure, the Mail has crap about tthe Royals, Beckhams, Celebrities and assorted “so and soes”.
However, it does REALLY INVESTIGATE MATTERS and has some good columnists. It also REALLY SELLS……..so it has real influence.
You are very opinionated. So why are YOU not FIGHTING for Wales in these newspapers…….with PROPER LETTERS WITH BOTH NAME AND ADDRESS?
What’s holding you back?
You are good for a laff. Calling D Smith out for being “opinionated” must rank as one of the day’s biggest howlers. Everybody on here is “opinionated” that is why they are on here. The main point of difference between them and you is that they do not demand behaviour to certain set templates ordained by your good self. So you go write to the Daily Mail but don’t count on decision makers heeding your comments.
But I’ve got the GUTS to state my opinions in the Press….GIVING FULL NAME AND ADDRESS !
You are far too cowardly to do that, Dafis.
Any fool can “argue” on these blogs without revealing identity!!
COME ON!!…I CHALLENGE YOU TO DEBATE WITH ME OPENLY IN THE WESTERN MAIL, DAFIS!!
COME ON!! SHOW A BIT OF SPINE!! Do something USEFUL……..TO DEFEND WALES!!
Safwn yn y bwlch dros Gymru !!
Correct!!!
Quite right!! What OTHER paper campaigns and investigates like the Daily Mail? The BBC have an agenda in promoting “global warming ” and the rest.
At least, the Daily Mail, especially ANDREW NEIL talks more sense than the BBC..
When is ANYONE, even this blog, going to reproduce the 2025 UK wind energy graph that is on Gridwatch.co.uk? It ends ALL arguments!
That yo-yo graph PROVES that wind energy cannot power the UK, so why not put it on here for DEBATE , Jac?
I’ve sent it to the Press including GBNews, but no-one has published it yet !! WHY?
Is everyone afraid of the SIMPLE ARITHMETICAL PROOF?
I won’t even call it mathematics. I studied calculus and trigonometry at A-Level.. That is complex maths.
THIS GRAPH IS VERY SIMPLE ARITHMETIC, AKIN TO WHAT I LEARNT AT ABOUT 12 YEARS OF AGE!!
Yet it seems to be far too complicated for the “Artsy Graduate” INNUMERATE, NON-TECHNICAL types that flood the Press and politics.
That’s why they are in politics. They don’t have the actual ability to do most real jobs.
SO THEY ENTER POLITICS…….WHERE THEY CAN HAVE PART-TIME 5 DAY WEEK JOBS, INDEX-LINKED SALARIES AND PENSIONS………JUST FOR “WAFFLING” !!!!!!!
No wonder they all want to get into Cardiff Bay. The FIRST thing the new lot did……WAS HAVE A HOLIDAY!!
That’s total nonsense. The Daily Mail has the best investigative journalists of UK papers. I’ve had several letters in it over the years. It is read by millions….so it has REAL INFLUENCE!!
Trouble is….it is very “pro-England” and won’t defend Wales like it defends England. Virtually “English-Nationalist” in many ways.
Having said that, their chief investigative reporter, GUY ADAMS , lives somewhere in Gwent. So why aren;’t the MYNYDD MAEN ACTION GROUP not writing to Guy Adams to get a Daily Mail article on the 1000 600 ft/820 ft wind turbines that are ABOUT TO WRECK WALES?
You have a lot to say David Smith, so why aren’t YOU writing to the Press to defend Wales, instead of simply chatting on here?
The paper you’ve called a “rag”…….REALLY SELLS…….and HAS HUGE INFLUENCE!!
Are you scared stiff of putting your address in the Press, David Smith [ if that’s your real name?]
Not anti English just anti corruption and protecting Welsh interests that’s their job?
But that would mean doing background checks, and that’s too much like hard work. especially when there’s good media coverage to be gained from boasting about ‘investment’.
Given that so many of these dodgy proposals have arrived at Wales Gov and various County H.Q’s the reflection on the quality of officers delegated to scrutinise must be at an all time low. How much do these jerks earn? Has any of them ever been fired? Box ticking is about as much effort as any of them invest in their roles.
But when the media won’t do its job all you have to worry about is some chancer going too far and getting pulled in by Plod.
Let’s start with Council Officers doing their jobs with a touch more scrutiny. They might get publicity in local media as the “sharp eyed” gunner that downed a vulture hovering over Abbasock, Trefdraeth, or,heaven forbid, Tywyn!
Why are you not in the PRESS with full name and address Dafis? What are you afraid of?
Go on !! Say your “say” in the Western Mail !!!
As I said above you are good for a laff and now at the point of not being taken seriously which is a pity when one considers the amount of research time and information generated over years of campaigning. I will not start telling you how to go about your activity as that would be contrary to my stance towards your and another’s recent conduct. Just be assured that you will not see any of my writings in Western Mail or any other media.
You must be good for a far bigger “laff” , Dafis, because you chopse away without having the guts to say who you are!!
“Not taking me seriously”!!!?? That’s a good one!
NO-ONE on Earth is going to take an anonymous person hiding under a rock whilst throwing spears seriously ,are they?
OF COURSE we won’t see your “writings” in the Western Mail or any other media. That takes a degree of COURAGE AND COMMITTMENT !!
Why are you HIDING , Dafis? Are you on the run ,or what?
Didn’t that Gavin bloke, in his disgrace, turn to pieousness, by which I don’t mean he found God? He looked like a Johnny Vegas tribute act the last pic I saw of him. “Where’s me money?!”
I must admit to not following the Wolf of Wharf Street after his fall. Strange, because despite being a crook, there was still something plausible, even likeable, about him. Maybe he should have gone into politics.
Jesus Christ Jac…we have more than enough already!!!
Like the poor, they are always with us.