The have been ordered to tear down wooden cabins or be fined £20,000 with a CRIMINAL conviction. Anthony and Nicola Halse own Sunnyside Nurseries in Newport.
They set up three cabins five years ago to operate a fruit and veg store and an arts school. Nicola told “It was going brilliantly, I was even thinking about expanding with a new workshop on site so we could make more space here.”
The couple were sent an enforcement notice in August 2020 demanding they stopped operating businesses from the cabins as they had not received planning permission. The closures will mean £12,500 wasted - and six jobs lost.
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Nicola added: “It’s now upsetting being in here, if that makes sense. I know I have to be here and keep going for the customers until Christmas. But it just feels like everything has been taken away from me.”
“It’s been a solid five years of really hard work since I’ve been here,” she continued. "I’ve never done it for profit. I’ve done it because it really has helped me mentally meeting people every day. People have told me to go somewhere else, but going somewhere else as a small business isn’t easy. Prices would triple, I couldn’t cope with the overheads. I’ve had no bills to pay here which is why I’ve been able to do it.”
A spokesperson for the council said: “Permission was refused for the three retail units on the grounds that they would have a significant adverse effect on sustainability and were not justified on this rural site.”
Anthony said: “It’s cost us 12 and a half grand appealing it, and they’ve all been refused. I was shocked, I really thought it would be just a case of getting everything rubber stamped. I felt we had a good case with good presentations on why we should keep them from two local councillors. think I’m a reasonable chap. I wouldn’t have minded if they’d said: ‘Right, carry on as you are but the conditions are no expansion.’ That wouldn’t have been a problem.”
“We’ve gone to the Welsh Assembly and a man came here in February to inspect. We weren’t allowed to talk to him. He sided with the council."
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