Farmer handed £112,000 fine over illegal felling of 200 trees near Blackwood

A man who illegally chopped down over 200 “ancient” trees in Blackwood has been fined more than £112,000 after failing to appear at a court hearing for a second time.

Keith Smith, 63, was found guilty of felling around 200 hedgerow beech trees on land at Pen y Fan Farm, in Manmoel near Blackwood, without the necessary licence.

The farmer admitted to cutting down the trees with his two sons in January, and has been fined £112,197.

Smith, who was being prosecuted by environmental agency Natural Resources Wales (NRW), failed to show up for the hearing after it had been adjourned from August 4.

That hearing was put back after prosecutors admitted they were unsure whether Smith had received the court summons.

Today, Friday September 15, Newport Magistrates’ Court were told by NRW prosecutor Mohammed Yakub how officers had tracked Smith and his family to an address in Ammanford, Camarthenshire, and witnessed the delivery of summons.

He also received a letter warning him the case could go ahead in his absence.

Smith had rented land at Pen y Fan farm for a number of years when he was living at nearby Pen Deri Farm, in Manmoel, until a “significant portion” was handed over by the landowner to energy solutions firm, Gildemeister, to build solar panels on. Caerphilly County Borough Council’s planning committee green-lit the plans in 2015.

Mr Yakub told the court it was believed Smith, who had “previously failed to get [planning] permission to do something with the land”, subsequently felled the trees in an act of “revenge” after objecting to the solar panel proposals.

Smith previously said he had been offered £5,000 to remove the trees by a representative of Gildemeister, but there was “no commercial gain for the company to fell the trees”, Mr Yakub added. “The company had wanted the trees to remain as they provided a perfect screen to the panels, and planning permission would not allow for the felling.”

It is not possible to sell illegally felled trees and the court heard how the timber from the beech trees, which is typically used for firewood due to its long burn, had been blocked from entering the open market.

Smith’s actions were “completely deliberate” Mr Yakub said, and NRW would not have granted him a felling permit due to the fact that the trees were mature, formed part of an “ancient hedgerow” and provided a “valuable” wildlife habitat.

Those factors were also used when determining the fine imposed on Smith.

On its website, the environmental agency states that the felling of trees without licence can lead to fines of up to £2,500 or twice the value of the trees – whichever is the greater amount.

NRW calculated the commercial value of the trees to be around £8,000, or £40 per tonne, while the amenity value worked out at £452 per tree when factors such as location, age, type and size were taken into account.

That value was multiplied by the number of tree stumps, 82, which amounted to more than £44,500.

The court heard those 82 stumps had provided more than 200 trees in total, and Smith was fined £105,082 – double the amenity and commercial value of the trees.

He was also fined £6,945 in costs to Natural Resources Wales, and a £170 victim surcharge fee.

Tim Jones, Executive Director for NRW said: “Trees are incredibly important for the environment and wildlife, as part of the landscape and for our own health and wellbeing.

“The loss of these veteran trees, which were hundreds of years old, is devastating and it will take many generations for new trees to grow to replace them, if they grow at all.

“Like many things in our environment, trees are often taken for granted. Felling licences are part of the system we have in place so we can manage our trees and woodlands effectively, protecting them and making sure they continue to benefit us all now and into the future.”