Beleaguered hamlet turns back bailiffs

The residents of a beautiful rural hamlet in South Wales won a brief respite from eviction yesterday when they turned back bailiffs of a property developer which wants to knock down their homes and build an executive housing estate.

Holt's Field, on the Gower peninsula near Swansea, has been the subject of a series of bitter legal wrangles for the past six years. The hamlet of 27 chalets surrounded by deep woodland has been compared to "Arcadia", the legendary Greek idyll, by one government inspector, and designated a conservation area for representing "a unique part of the nation's built legacy".

But to Elitestone, a property development company, it represents a unique opportunity to build an exclusive housing estate. The company has bought the land and wants the residents to leave their homes so they can be demolished.

The developer has already been refused planning permission by Swansea City Council. It then lost on appeal to the Welsh Office and the High Court. The council also passed a conservation order on the chalets.

However, the company has won another series of legal wrangles, allowing it to evict the residents as trespassers.

The residents accuse Tim Jones, director of Elitestone and a local solicitor, of acting out of "vindictiveness".

Two bailiffs turned up at midday yesterday to carry out the court order but were met by 150 people from the community and local villages. After much jostling the bailiffs were let into the centre of the hamlet but some residents prevented them from delivering the eviction notices.

However, the conservation order stops the developer from forcing their way into them or boarding up the homes after eviction, and now the residents are negotiating to buy the land back, possibly with a loan from an ethical investment bank.