'The moment council bullies demolished our £700,000 dream home in front of us'

Council machinery moved in to smash down their £700,000 barn conversion yesterday, reducing it to a pile of stones, timber and debris.

The five-bedroom home was deemed to have breached planning regulations by being too different to the original building.

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But Joe Gilling, 65, and his wife Patricia say that, despite repeated site visits by planning officials, they were not warned that the development would break the rules.

They also claim that the council refused to compromise during a prolonged and costly legal battle.

The council ordered the bulldozers in after the Gillings could not bring themselves to tear down the property - which they never got to live in.

"What we really think about how the council has acted is unprintable, but you could say they've been absolutely diabolical," Mrs Gilling, 61, said yesterday.

"It's heartbreaking - and they just seem to be trying to make a point about who's boss, like a playground bully."

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The couple bought 72-acre Newton Farm, in Welsh Newton, outside Monmouth, with 60 head of beef cattle and 20 sheep in 2002.

They got planning permission from Herefordshire Council to convert a barn on the site to a house.

They also won permission to build an equestrian centre and six small holiday homes at the farm, which they intended to run as a business to pay for their retirement.

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Using stone from elsewhere on the farm to maintain the building's uniformity, the barn was extended.

The couple, of Devauden, near Chepstow, say that during this period, planning officers repeatedly visited the farm to check on the equestrian centre and holiday lets, but never identified a problem with the barn.

But in June 2005, they were told the project breached restrictions because the work was so extensive that it was judged to be a new-build rather than a conversion.

Later that year, an enforcement notice was served ordering them to demolish the building.

The shell was nearly complete, but work had not yet started on the interior.

The couple began an appeal process which saw them unsuccessfully visit the High Court twice and left them with a legal bill approaching £30,000.

Mrs Gilling said they are now deciding if they can take any further action.

"I can't believe what has happened," she added.

"Planning officers came and went lots of times but never once mentioned anything helpful about the barn.

"We had wanted to retire into it and give the farm to our son Kristian, but we just don't know what to do."

Andrew Ashcroft, Herefordshire Council's planning chief, said: "There is a long and complicated history on this site going back to 2002.

"The council has exhausted the more traditional enforcement processes.

"It has a duty to protect the appearance of the countryside and demolition is the only option now available."