I thought I'd found my dream life in the country but it became a nightmare and cost me thousands

A dad moved his family to North Wales with the prospect of a ‘dream lifestyle’ but has returned 12 months later after it all fell apart. Peter Dive, from Suffolk, bought 20 acres of land and a bunch of derelict properties in Trawsfynydd in the Eryri national park in February 2023. He hoped to create a tourism hotspot where he would also live.

He wanted to turn the listed Rhiw Goch Inn, which he bought at auction for £200,000, into a pub and restaurant while he would live in the neighbouring bungalow with his family and oversee luxury cabins and glamping pods. He also wanted to reinstate tobogganing and skiing at the previously popular slopes at the site and had hoped it would become a destination for weddings and other occasions.

But within weeks he realised in buying the listed building in a national park he’d walked into what would become a planning nightmare which he said proved to be his “worst investment”. A year on he told WalesOnline he has all but given up on the dream and has moved back to England with his family claiming the planning authority kept rejecting his proposals.

The dad’s issues started in spring 2023 when he was told by the Eryri National Park Authority to stop renovating the bungalow where he’d planned to live. He had prioritised the bungalow as his first job on the estate so his children could live there and attend the local school in September.

He told WalesOnline that the national park authority told him he would need additional permissions for the work on the bungalow because the property was “within the curtilage” of the grade-II listed Rhiw Goch Inn. He was then told to stop the work until he’d received full planning permission, but he says he’s now thousands of pounds down after multiple failed applications while the makeshift bungalow roof is leaking. The bungalow also has no heating or beds and they had been sleeping on the floor on air beds.

“To start with I wanted to renovate the bungalow so my family could live in it and I wanted to sort out the lodges as holiday lets, as permission for holiday lets is already in place at Rhiw Goch,” he said. “I did like for like work very quickly on the lodges and the bungalow and I was three or four days away from having the lodges ready when they told me to stop work because they are 'within the curtilage of a listed building' and I need full permission to do anything. That was the first I'd heard of that.” Facing the prospect of living in what Mr Dive said was an uninhabitable property, he decided to move his children back to England.

A spokesperson for the national park said a listed building consent application for the estate has been rejected due to an insufficient heritage impact assessment. They said the stricter planning regulations for the listed Rhiw Goch building include accompanying buildings like the bungalow.

In 2021, before Mr Dive bought the estate, the buildings had received planning approval for restoration of Rhiw Goch Inn and for holiday lets to be installed, so when Mr Dive bought the estate he thought he’d be able to “crack on quickly”. Asked whether approved applications from 2021 are still active, a spokesperson for the national park agreed with Mr Dive that they remain active. But they said Mr Dive must also submit a heritage impact assessment and meet necessary heritage standards which they said have not been met. Mr Dive said he and the authority disagree on what constitutes "like for like" work on the buildings.

The spokesperson for the authority said: “Recently in July 2024 the National Park Authority reviewed a planning application for modifications at the Rhiw Goch Inn. While the planning application for structural modification was initially validated, the corresponding listed building consent (LBC) application was not validated due to an insufficient heritage impact assessment (HIA).

“The applicant’s agent was informed that the HIA did not meet the necessary standards and received guidance from officers of what was required. Under CADW’s criteria the bungalow is considered curtilage listed meaning it is treated as part of the listed Rhiw Goch Inn and is subject to the same protections and restrictions. The National Park Authority awaits further details from Mr Dive or his agent.”

Mr Dive claims he has never received any guidance from the national park despite “pleading for help”. "I'm not silly and I've worked with many councils before," he said. "I've previously emailed councils with pre-planning applications and have asked what I need to do and they've told me.

"But every time I ask Snowdonia National Park for advice they tell me to contact a planning advisor. They haven't given me any helpful guidance.

"I've sent many emails basically pleading for help. I've asked what I can and can't do. They send back basic information on heritage buildings having different permitted development rights. Everyone knows that. All I want is advice. I want to work with them.

"The whole thing is so much hard work and I'm getting nothing back. They just keep coming back asking for more and more application forms."

On why he decided to move his family away from Wales as a result of his long-running planning issues, Mr Dive said: "It wasn't working. I had no support from the national park and I was going round in circles spending a fortune on applications which never even got validated, let alone rejected."