A COUPLE locked in a bitter dispute with their neighbour have called for a public inquiry into the way Carmarthenshire Council has handled the affair.

Trisha Breckman and Eddie Roberts have been fighting with Andrew Thomas and his partner Karen Bowen, who passed away in 2008, for the past six years.

They claim Mr Thomas had been running a haulage business, scrapyard and quarry at Blaenpant Farm, near Maesybont, Cross Hands. Mr Thomas denies the claims.

Last month, the opening day of a planning inquiry heard that Mr Thomas and Ms Bowen housed two pigs directly next to their neighbours' cottage, calling the pair Trish and Eddie after the couple. Mrs Breckman laid the blame for years of abuse at the door of Carmarthenshire Council, saying: "We appeal to the Assembly to launch a public inquiry into this authority's relationship with Blaenpant and the devastating impact their decisions and accusations have had upon our lives."

Refused

She was speaking at the reconvened planning inquiry in Carmarthen yesterday, but planning inspector Clive Cochrane said: "I am sorry, that is not something I can deal with."

The inquiry heard that Carmarthenshire Council had refused Mr Thomas retrospective permission for a hard-standing area for agricultural machinery.

Items found at the site included an old caravan, a redundant fire engine, diggers, tankers, lorries, engines, skips, metal tanks, concrete sleepers and scrap metal.

Carmarthenshire Council's development control officer, Ceri Davies, said the authority had acted properly in refusing planning permission.

Representing Mr Thomas, Maxine Lewis said the issue was not the years of bad feeling between the neighbours but the merits of the retrospective planning application.

The planning inquiry was closed and the planning inspector's decision is due in the next few weeks.

graeme.wilkinson@swwmedia.co.uk