Buying plots of land
From the outset, it should be understood that PPEML and its Directors are not allowed to sell the site as a whole. This is explained in the covenants everyone has.
The idea of buying the land around individual properties is a popular one, it would raise revenue to fund other works on the estate and at the same time move some of the maintenance responsibilities from the company to the new plot owner, giving them a degree of freedom to 'customise' their immediate environment.
There are complications though, and these are why it is taking so long. Primarily, the problem is a national one, to divide the land into plots requires involvement of The Land Registry. The Land Registry is the body that records property ownership and boundary positions, they in turn get the locations of the properties from another organisation called Ordnance Survey. OS deal with the geographic locations and LR deal with who owns it. Unfortunately when PPEML started mapping plots it quickly became apparent that the Land Registry maps do not align with the Ordnance Survey ones. Both organisations were contacted and PPEML discovered that LR actually get their maps from OS so something had gone wrong in government records.
If PPEML had gone ahead and used sensible 'on the ground' division between properties, the official records would show some people owning up to half of their neighbours buildings. In other places there are buildings within the roadway and even one building entirely out of its real footprint. Drawing a dividing line through someones bedroom is not an option! The issue is further complicated because some plots of land were sold by the previous site owner and the boundaries recorded then may conflict with new ones PPEML want to define. An estate agent was engaged to try to find a solution to the dilema but after working on some trial areas, they gave up in frustration. A surveying company was contacted to re-map the estate but they quoted a huge cost, way beyond anything PPEML could afford.
The situation at the moment is that Ordnance Survey are taking aerial photographs, shot from different angles, to re-draw the map and update the Land Registry. It is taking frustratingly long but there is no reasonable alternative option and it will not cost PPEML for the corrections to be made.
When the maps are corrected, PPEML will again try to sensibly divide the estate into plots around individual properties and offer them for sale.
How much will it cost ? Well, it depends on the usability of the land and PPEML have worked out a tiered pricing structure. Actual costs per square metre are based on figures produced by local estate agents in the surrounding area. Flat usable land will cost more than a vertical rock face!
Please note that owning the land around a property does not infer the owner can do anything they want with it, standards have to be kept for the sanity and benefit of neighbours and the estate as a whole. Furthermore, all of Plas Panteidal falls inside Parc Eryri and is subject to planning regulations they impose.
