A LONG-running dispute between Powys council and a man who built a tree house in a Radnorshire woodland where he lives has ended up in court.

Eddie McIntosh had lived in a mobile home at Mellowcraft in Llandegley, near Llandrindod Wells, for more than 10 years when a planning inspector finally found in the council’s favour that structures including the tree house, classrooms and the site’s use as a retreat and as a residence did not have planning permission.

The rural retreat had featured in the Channel 4 Series Kevin McCloud’s Man Made Home in 2012 and wrangling with the council’s planning department dates back to 2008.

The council alleges Mr McIntosh is in breach of an enforcement notice, it issued in March 2015, as he’d failed to comply with the notice by October 29, 2016 and was continuing to use the site as a residence until January this year when council officials visited.

Mr McIntosh had appealed the enforcement action but the independent inspector, in February 2016, found in the council’s favour and gave Mr McIntosh nine months to comply.

Last week the 52-year-old appeared before magistrates in Llandrindod and denied breaching the enforcement notices in a prosecution brought by the county council.

Council solicitor Nigel Vaughan said the council alleges Mr McIntosh breached the enforcement notice as the site was still being used as a residence when a council officer visited in January this year. He also claimed a container, that was required to be removed, was still on site.

Mr Vaughan said the defendant had been required by the enforcement notice to remove “contraventions” from the land and he said the issue in the case was whether those notices had been complied with up until the site visit in January this year.

Mr McIntosh, who confirmed his address Mellowcraft, Llandegley, at the short court hearing, entered a not guilty plea to the charge of breaching the enforcement notice.

Around 13 people, who took up nearly the entire public seating area in the courtroom, attended the hearing to show their support for Mr McIntosh who had no legal representation at court.

Mr McIntosh chose a trial by magistrates rather than before a crown court jury.

The trial will take place at Llandrindod Wells Magistrates Court on Friday, August 31 at 10am.

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Mellowcraft was previously known as Rowton Farm before it was abandoned in 1923. Mr McIntosh brought the site in 2006 and began restoring the land as well as erecting a number of structures.