Scaffolder’s fears after planning row
A FATHER fears for his family’s future after mistakenly building a scaffolding yard without planning permission.
Jamie Fuller, from Llanelli, thought he had all the permissions he needed to tip 5,000 tonnes of hardcore on a field off the B4309 in Furnace – but he did not know he needed to submit a planning application. Now the 33-year-old faces an £85,000 bill after being ordered to remove the scaffolding yard. He has already spent around £30,000 on the project and believes bankruptcy is likely.
Mr Fuller said: “I’m gutted. It’s jeopardised the future of my three children. I want to give them the best possible life I can. This will leave me having to sign on. I feel I will be stuck in a council house for the rest of my life. For four years I’ve built up my scaffolding business, working long hours and weekends. I feel like it was all for nothing.”
Mr Fuller, who employs two scaffolders, bought the land from his grandfather Gerald in June 2020 as a base for his business. Previously he had rented space elsewhere.
“I thought it’s paid for, it’s mine, nobody can tell me what to do and I’ve no worry of having to leave,” he said. “It was great. My plan was to build a house there in the future. That was my dream. The original access point to the site was the same one for my grandfather’s house. I didn’t want to cause him problems or depreciate the value of his property by sharing access, so I created a new access point.”
Mr Fuller applied to Natural Resources Wales for the right to tip hardcore to level the field, which he described as a “fly-tipping hotspot” disused for decades.
“The land had been all overgrown and I cut it back. It was a bog, a hell of a mess, with a bit of a stream going down the side. There were tyres and fridges and dead animals and rats. You name it, it was there. I must have taken 100 dumped tyres away.”
NRW granted an exemption for Mr Fuller to use waste materials in construction. He started tipping hardcore and rubble to build a driveway and hardstanding for the scaffolding yard, with a layer of crushed stone on top to make it “tidy”. By September last year the access was in place but Mr Fuller was still laying the yard’s surface, he said. At this point he was visited by representatives of Carmarthenshire Council and NRW.
“It panicked me a bit,” he said. “They were saying their biggest concern was the access. I asked what I needed to do. They said I needed planning permission for access but didn’t mention anything about [tipping for the surface of the yard].
“I had lorries coming in and tipping rubble at the time. They could see we were tipping that day and didn’t say anything about it. There was no stop notice for the tipping.”
Mr Fuller put in a retrospective planning application for the access but says he did not hear from the council until March, when he received an enforcement notice through the door.
“It said I had to block up the access I’d created, remove my scaffolding material from the yard, get rid of the fencing, remove the rubble and hardcore I’d tipped and bring the land back to its original level. I appealed, which was rejected by the planning inspectorate. The reason given was the view from the road, even though the Brynmefys estate is a few hundred yards up the road and looks a mess.”
Mr Fuller had spent around £30,000 on the land purchase and construction work by the time he halted the project in March. He estimates work is 80% complete.
“Why didn’t they tell me to stop tipping when they came here?” he said. “They had months to tell me. I’d given the NRW all these transfer notes to show the materials weren’t contaminated.”
Mr Fuller “panicked” when he got the enforcement notice. He started selling his business’s equipment so he would have funds to reverse the work on the land. But the lack of equipment left his team struggling to operate, so he stopped selling in an attempt to save the company.
“The price to remove all the hardcore will be around £85,000,” he said. “Firms are afraid of damaging the road so I’m struggling to find anyone to remove it.
“The planning inspectorate has said it can’t take personal circumstances into consideration because I’ve broken planning law which I didn’t know about. I’m worried I’m going to have bailiffs at my door. If it comes to it I’m going to have to sell all my equipment to pay for removal.”
Mr Fuller is worried about how this will affect the futures of his children – eight-year-old Jake, fouryear-old Thea and two-year-old Indi.
“My two employees are worried about it,” he added. “They have children themselves. They’re sticking with me for now but they don’t know if they’ll have a job in March.
“We’re still using the site for the business but we’re not using the new access anymore. My grandfather has had to sign a document saying I have a right of way through his place for ever.”
Mr Fuller still harbours hope the council might change its decision. It has given him a deadline of February to restore the land to its previous condition. “I’d be happy if they let me keep what I’ve got of the yard,” he said. “I’ve got enough to operate and just use my granddad’s access. I can manage as it is.”
The planning inspectorate explained its decision to reject Mr Fuller’s appeal, writing in its report that the development had “significantly altered and harmed the rural character and appearance of the immediate area”.
The report also raises safety concerns. It says the access is not perpendicular to the main road, adding: “The visibility in both directions from the access is restricted and it is likely that vehicles exiting the site would have to edge out on to the highway to gain visibility.”
NRW confirmed its waste regulation team had been in regular contact with Mr Fuller “up to the work becoming a planning issue”, which was then led by the council.
“Mr Fuller did not have a permit for this work, he had registered an exemption with NRW,” said its senior waste regulation officer David Ellar. “Exemptions are for low-risk waste operations that are exempt from needing an environmental permit but still require the holder to operate within specified limits and conditions. Registering an exemption does not remove the need to apply for other permits or permissions. Waste exemptions must be registered with us before the activity commences.
“We de-registered Mr Fuller’s exemption when planning permission was refused by the planning authority at Carmarthenshire Council as the activity was not authorised.”
A council spokeswoman added: “Before anyone starts a development of any type we strongly recommend that they contact the local planning authority so that they can be advised of what permissions may be required. Having a permit from another body for depositing waste materials on a site does not constitute planning permission.”