Response to 'Time To Call In The OPD Scam'

This article online has been brought to our attention. https://jacothenorth.net/blog/time-to-call-in-the-opd-scam/?fbclid=IwAR3IAydc2MeVmgpUueYLpy6L9bja0dhLRAx1VgL57RkiIclSMo_y4aRAfgY It appears to be not only a foolish attempt by an old fustrated chump at a personal attack, but also largely incorrect in doing so. As well as a complete failure in describing our intentions as a company to form Vegan OPD Ecovillages, and all of the benefits that this will bring to our Country. 97% of the information posted by this quality gent appears to be false and spurious.

Jac wrote: “and pretend to be farmers.”

No, the planning policy requires the Plot Owners to be Farmers.

"For it attracts people into Wales who keep farting animals"

The future of farming is Vegan. HEAMES Architectural Design & Planning Consultants are promoting Stock Free (Vegan) Farming, with on-site solar / wind / hydro off-the-grid power generation. A far lower footprint than all OPDs in existence which tend to be on 6+ acre plots. As a vegan small scale organic farm this can be done on a 2 acre plot.

"drive old diesel vehicles, and have wood-burning stoves."

The people we attract to our OPD Projects tend to be more in favour of electric vehicle use (which is now a requirement for every new house development to have a charger station).

With regards to your comments on wood burning stove use - we are promoting biogas production for cooking. It must be kept above 20 degrees at all times (within a greenhouse type structure would be ideal) and it can produce up to 6 hours of cooking gas per day. As well as the possibility for other uses.

We are also promoting Passive Solar heating which for the cost of running a small sensor and fan to pump air through the ground, the house is regulated all year round at the cost of pennies once setup. And even the setup costs are not that high if done in the way we are promoting.

“There was a Crowdfunder appeal in the name of The Edible Forest that claimed to have raised (or been promised) £650,000. But there’s no update after April 2019. Which I suppose might be explained by the appeal having reached its target.”

In 2019 I came up with the idea of combining 2 of my life goals (The Edible Forest and to create a Zero Waste Ecovillage – the moment I mentioned it, it went crazy. Thousands of people messaging. BBC wanting to do a TV Series on the development of the project and I was completely unprepared for the reaction). We spent a long whole year coming up with ideas of how this could work under an OPD Ecovillage proposal.

We decided on a 12 person management team, a 999 year lease on the plots and with this proposal we managed to find enough vegans to promise funds to the value of £580,000 with signed letters of intent. We then proceeded to submit an offer on 250 acres of low cost land (a recently restored open cast mine – our goal as a company being to purchase large areas of low quality agricultural land which is ripe for improvement). We had a meeting with the land owner but sadly our offer was not accepted. We did not proceed, no funds were paid in, and we wrote in to dissolve the company.

2022 we found a new location with a revised plan for Freehold plots. This has now proceeded with a purchase. The Edible Forest project has successfully progressed through the first major hurdle.

“But I still don’t understand why the name was being used to raise money before the company of that name was even formed. And why fundraising ceased before the company was formed.”

We only managed to raise around £350 through crowdfunding and used this to purchase historic apple and pear trees which will be planted out at The Edible Forest project at its new location.

My first attempt at setting up an Ecovillage was in 2010, it was called the ‘Eat for Free’ Project. I wanted to make it so that there was no funds required to take part. However we failed obviously in the part regarding funds to actually buy land. It took many years to form the ideas which have now worked!

“That seems to be a problem with Wade William Heames. Companies come and go, there’s a vagueness about what’s being purchased, we find multiple social media accounts, and commercial entities mentioned that seem devoid of corporate substance.

Such as . . .

A short-lived, one-man band, Food For Wales Ltd. Launched 12 May, 2020, Dissolved 18 October, 2022. What was its purpose? The SIC says, ‘Retail sale of fruit and vegetables in specialised stores’. So what happened?

There was also a Crowdfunder appeal for this company. Maybe it didn’t raise enough money?”

This appears to be more of a personal attack. Where you actually lack knowledge of what has happened, failed to ask me about it before writing this marvellous piece of text online.

Food for Wales Ltd – I had an agreement with a local farmer for use of his land for the production of organic plant food, to provide to local people. The agreement being rent free with 50% of the produce to be provided to the land owner.

There were a number of issues that arose with this having shovelled 70 tons of soil, shaped it into 15 market garden rows, and having spent around £800 on set up a gravity fed watering system.

During those 6 hard months of labour it turned out that:-

1. the soil wasn’t organic as the farmer had promised. In fact this “30 year old organic soil” included 8 skip loads of rubbish, and insane levels of micro plastics. Contaminated soil.

2. the farmer was burying rubbish further up the farm, right next to the stream where I was collecting rainwater from for the proposed gravity fed watering sprinklers. Contamination likely.

3. the land owner started coming up with ideas of hiring people to make profits, which was not what I had agreed with him.

4. When requested the farm owner would not sign a written contract detailing our original agreement.

I walked away from this project with a great deal of experience setting up a hill-side market garden, with gravity fed water harvested sprinklers, and a valuable lesson to always have a written contract before you start putting a lot of hard work into anything.

“One, is for Jean Lamour Pest Control, another for Jean Lamour Environmental Services. Are these real companies, or just flights of fancy? There’s certainly nothing registered with Companies House under ‘Jean Lamour’.”

Before I turned 100% raw vegan (and I am still vegan to this day), I was in the process of planning out these businesses. Never got round to actually going ahead with them as you know I turned vegan .

Your following comments from this one, yet again, appear to be very much a personal attack.

“Another imaginary entity might be Unleash The Drones. What the hell is that about?”

Hehe. Proposed Drone Company to photograph local houses for sale. Very good idea but unfortunate the laws around drones were very strict at the time and micro drones were not about with 4k cameras back then. Far to strict for this business idea to proceed. However, had it done – 15 local properties photographed for £35 per, would have been a well-paid days’ work.

“Yet in this recent FB entry Heames promises riches beyond the dreams of avarice.”

The author appears to have no knowledge of land prices since covid19 or is falling into the trap that most fall into.

The demand for small plots is through the roof. When a small 1 acre plot comes up for sale it is a minimum of £40k, sometimes up to £100k+ (even without any planning, just a plain agricultural plot). The reason for this sharp increase in price of small plots is that there are many people out there wanting to own agricultural land but cannot afford to purchase a larger area of land in order to obtain a lower rate per acre. Especially since covid 19, there are hundreds of thousands more people looking for small areas of land. In effect pushing up the cost of whatever 1 to 2 acre plots that become available to the market.

I am personally aware of 2 people who paid £40k per 1 acre (recently), 1 who paid £50k (commented on my post in the group you mentioned), and another who paid £30k for 1 acre just before the pandemic. Nothing fancy, no planning permission or promises of developments.

What I have stated there is factual, and is actually probably an underestimate because if you look to see that a previous small OPD project with a small £10k self-built round house sold for £330k. Now imagine one which is part of a Ecovillage and within The Edible Forest (proposed World’s Largest Food Forest protecting historic varieties of Welsh Food producing plants). It could be more like £500k per acre with planning approved. But I doubt very much that you’d find any one taking part in The Edible Forest project who would be willing to sell their plot for any amount offered. The kind of people we actually have involved are not focused on money in any way or form.

“And it attracted many unkind comments. When asked to justify the extravagant claims, and valuations, Heames’ response could be interpreted as suggesting using OPD legislation to greatly increase the value of the original purchase with a house in open country for which planning permission would almost certainly have been refused without employing the OPD angle.”

Am I correct in believing the author believes a successful OPD project would not increase the value of agricultural land? I can understand if he were to say it’s impossible to place a value on it. Because then he may have some knowledge as to how OPDs actually work. They have strict criteria to be producing from the land to benefit the local communities. Who in their right mind would be against local food production in our current climate and state of shortages to come?

“Now there’s a company called Heames II Ltd. The company address is 117 Llangrannog Road, Llanishen. (The one that’s ‘rewilding’ the front garden.) Set up in February 2021, yet Wade Heames is not listed as a director. The only director is Czech citizen Vera Schweitzerova. Ms Schweitzerova is also a director of Heames Ltd.

Heames II is obviously a Wade Heames company, so where is he?”

Thanks for asking, before writing these personal attacks online. I would highly advise some rapid edits. Not only are you attacking me but also others involved here with an awful lot of spurious false information.

HEAMES II was proposed by my daughter’s mother whilst she was unemployed. She came up with the idea of advertising Architectural & Planning Services and then once a project had been sourced she had the intention of subcontracting the work to my own company. Whilst I was massively in favour of her intentions to support my own company which had been successfully running since September 2018 with nothing but positive feedback. As life turns out, she was offered a job as a carer within 2-3 weeks of setting it up. She has now advised her accountant to prepare the company to be shutdown.

“Almost every angle of investigation runs up against more questions or dead-ends. And causes for concern.”

Hopefully my response reaches you swiftly, in order to provide you with the opportunity to edit this marvellous edition. Certainly in time before my solicitor manages to reach out to you. Let me know about it asap info@heames.ltd

“Another example is a recent entry on the Edible Forest Facebook page (January 6) suggesting that Wade Heames now intends applying to the Development Bank of Wales (DBW) for funding.

My understanding has always been that the DBW funds businesses that will create employment and generate wealth within Welsh communities. Surely OPD plots don’t qualify? And anyway, aren’t Heames’ projects self-financing?”

We looked into the possibility of applying for a loan to extend the The Edible Forest project to a further 36.1 acres. The Development Bank of Wales responded that they would consider this provided that we based it on the community run Organic Seed Company that we will be forming.

However, recent news is that we no longer require assistance to purchase the additional 36.1 acres. One of our Directors has offered to make the purchase so that we can expand the project.

“CONCLUSION”

My conclusion is that you're a fool who believes he has the right to judge others, yet certain he is correct because he holds 99% of the information available. But only the fool acts on it without the other 1%.

Vegan OPD Ecovillages are the key to bringing people back to working the land and also the key to meeting climate goals for the Country. Whilst doing so in an affordable manor! This is the key to achieving Small Scale Organic Farming goals so that all local areas can be provided with their own locally produced high quality food.

“And now we have Wade William Heames and his plans for OPD collectives in Pontypridd and Mynachlog-ddu. All funded by others, including, he hopes, The Development Bank of Wales!”

I am one of the highest funders towards The Edible Forest project. Our plans for Mynachlog-ddu have not progressed as our offer on the land was refused.

“It begins to look like big business. And a wee bit shady. One source described it: “Buy for £5k an acre and sell for 10” (or more).”

It’s easily done, but I can see your failure here to look into any of the costs involved in setting the foundation for a community project.

Estimated Costs for The Edible Forest project:-

Purchase Costs = £572,000.00 (land, solicitors, land surveyors, tax)

Project Setup Costs = £295,429.00 (security, transport, shared business facilities, shared tools & equipment, safety requirements, plants & trees for the community nursery). And the biggest trap the dark money grabbing minded people fall into when looking at this project is that they fail to realise that we will be having a 30-35 acre shared community business space. Now this itself will not provide any income from investors. So add that to your numpty dumpty calculations.

“And so, for the reasons given here (and elsewhere), I urge an end to this failed experiment that invites abuse.”

I think people like yourself should be prevented from OPD. Because clearly you have a dark soul. Look at all this false negative information you have stirred up. Exactly why we have a screening process to take part in these projects, to keep you foul minded people out of it.