Govt Forces Family Living Off-Grid, Growing Own Food On Own Land to Return to Society’s Rat Race or Face Penalty
Posted on Jun 30, 2011 in Urban Gardening, Farming & HomesteadingTruthisTreason.net – Kevin Hayden
Source: This is Devon
A family living an “off-grid” lifestyle say they face prison unless they move from their own land in Willand (Britain) and return to an existence in the benefits trap.
Stig and Dinah Mason bought Muxbeare Orchard after a sudden windfall allowed them to quit their impoverished lives on a Hertfordshire council estate two years ago.
The Masons have transformed what they described as a derelict four-acre plot into a haven of self-sufficiency boasting a 400 sq m allotment, a polytunnel and greenhouses to grow fruit and vegetables, chickens for egg production and an orchard they have regenerated by planting around 14 new apple trees of various species.
The couple, who have two boys, aged eight and nine, say because they moved onto the site in order to work the land, Mid Devon District Council is turfing them off as officers do not consider them to be conserving an agricultural area.
They faced magistrates on March 31 when they were served with an injunction to leave within 28 days from June 1.
Dinah, 35, who spent a year with her husband clearing four-foot high nettles and thistles which engulfed the four-acre site, said: “How anybody can say the orchard was being conserved before is beyond my comprehension.”
Dinah works while Stig, 34, as well as making sure the children get to school on time, tends to the land on a daily basis where peas, potatoes, garlic, strawberries, raspberries and various produce have been growing since 2009.
Vegetarians Stig and Dinah claim council officers offered them bed and breakfast accommodation in Cullompton at taxpayers’ expense and suggested they live on take aways, which are likely to cost around £20 for each family meal.
Dinah’s income currently provides the family with everything they need which they cannot grow themselves but is unlikely to stretch to cover kennelling costs for their dog, Moo.
They say they currently receive no state hand-outs but by giving up their “off grid” way of life, they fear they will end up in a council house, claiming housing and council tax benefits, as well as seeking grants to help pay for high utility bills.
Stig, chairman of the Willand Composting Scheme and a member of the primary school’s PTFA, sells eggs, produce, and hopefully cider in the future but explained that planning permission to live and work on the land was refused in 2009 which they are appealing against.
He said one of the council’s reasons for refusal was based on a belief the couple had did not have a “sound enough business plan.”
As well as plans to sell more produce locally, the couple say it is only likely to take them a further two years to get to a stage where they will be able to grow six to eight months’ worth of vegetables.
Dinah, who is a community care worker, cub leader and also a member of the PTFA, said: “To live in an agricultural area you need to have a financial need, but this gives us enough to live on, but our whole ethos is not about making money.
“The council is saying by us living here it becomes mixed-use and is therefore no longer deemed agricultural.”
Dinah was bequeathed money from the sudden death of her aunt and £47,000 was spent on the land to create the smallholding where wood burners and solar panels provide their energy needs.
Dinah said removing them from their land will render them homeless and is concerned they will have to pull their children out of Willand Primary School if they have to move out of the area.
But several people from across the country have written to the council in support of the family’s retention.
Continue reading here – This is Devon
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- 4 Methods for Off the Grid Food Production and Self-Sufficiency
- Family Farm Dinner Shut Down by Health Dept., Food Trashed – Local Police Tell Inspector to Leave Property
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Wow, England really is a land of serfs. I’ve read things were different over there as opposed to the U.S., but,… wow. This is like reading about life in the old Soviet union or something, perhaps even China today?
It’s not about justice.
The man(tm) wants us all in the so-called system, paying our taxes, brainwashed with their propaganda.
Emigrate.
The northern hemisphere is close to collapse anyway.
Too bad that they didn’t take that windfall and move to America like one of my English ancestors did in the early 17th century-yeah, that’s right, in the 1600′s. Even then, Samuel Richardson could smell the stench of death that was permeating England and the rest of Europe. Perhaps this couple could get the govenment to buy them out so that they could emigrate before they are totally enslaved by the British Welfare State.
The US is not far behind. The only advantage we have is that we are such a large country that the government will have the dickens of a time finding us all, let alone throwing us off our own land.
I have never heard of such flimsy reasons of government for stealing citizens’ property as this. They waited until the land was improved with these people’s money and hard work to condem it??? So who is going to get it?
If they force you off, sell everything you can, burn it, and poison the ground.
May God help you retrieve everything you have invested!
The reason they’re saving the US for last is that the citizenry of the US is armed to the teeth and adamant about staying that way. The second amendment was designed to cause huge problems for tyrants.
Attention Brits!
There are tons of houses for sale in the US at rock bottom prices and favorable loan rates. Do yourself a favor and get the hell out of that prison state called England. America is only a police state, and the inmates still get to carry guns here.
The Masons should get certified as “Travellers”, Dirty Gypsies to the real population of England, and claim that the city council is being “racist”. No one can tell a “Traveller” from any other people, since they are not a homogeneous people, and good luck telling them anything. Vegetarianism is a religion, right? How about a “grow your own” sect? Use their political correctness and unwillingness to offend against them.
+1 for “depart UK for a place where the citizens are armed with military rifles against this bovine excrement”
Cheers
Okay folks… anyone who can’t see the writing on the wall is either blind or stupid. We are all children of the Creator. If you let these bankster and government azzholes control your life then you automatically LOSE. Everything from Banksters to the so-called “royal family”… which makes me puke, are nothing more than slave masters. Who are these azzholes and how did they claim to be “royal” all these years and seemingly have control over your daily life? What makes them better than any of us? Are you phucking kidding me? Why are they supported by TAX DOLLARS from the poor working stiff? Aren’t you getting tired of this type of bullzhit yet?
Ah yes… my rant will fall on deaf ears. Most of you reading this will be watching the tely and couldn’t care less about your ongoing enslavement.
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