Activists accused of trying to develop an American-style ‘white-only’ community in the Welsh countryside face a confrontation with the local council after building on their woodland site without planning permission.
The Woodlander Initiative (TWI), led by veteran fascist Simon Birkett, has raised £235,000 of its £1million target towards buying land in every British county.
It appears to be an attempt to create a UK version of the American Return To The Land (RTTL) movement, which has set up a white separatist enclave in Arkansas with the goal of resegregating society.
Eric Orwoll, founder of RTTL, has said his organisation is allied with TWI, which has built two log cabins on land it bought from a farmer in the village of Llanafan Fawr, Powys.
Mr Birkett’s group has denied claims it is attempting to create a white-only enclave on the two plots of land and claims anyone is welcome to visit, camp, and help with the building work.
But they risk a run-in with Powys Council after the authority confirmed that no applications had been made to build on the five-acre site, which is split between a steep field and an area of dense woodland.
The TWI has also failed to apply for a change of use from agriculture to leisure or tourism, potentially putting them in breach of planning regulations.
One local farmer told the Daily Mail: ‘There’s building materials arriving regularly and three or four blokes working up there.
Members have partly built two wooden cabins on land they bought from a farmer in the village of Llanafan Fawr, Powys
They risk a run-in with Powys Council after the authority confirmed that no applications had been made to build on the five-acre site
The Woodland Initiative (TWI) is run by former BNP and National Front member Simon Birkett. He’s seen speaking at the Patriotic Alternative annual conference in 2024
‘They’ve not upset anyone so far but like everyone else they are subject to planning laws which are quite strict around here. If I opened a caravan and camping site, the council would be knocking on my door straight away.’
No official complaints have been made to Powys Council but locals are concerned about the political background and objectives of their new neighbours.
A Powys Council spokesman said: ‘Our planning department have confirmed that we have no relevant recent planning history for the site.
‘We have also not received any formal complaints to date regarding the structures referred to in the email below.
‘The Development Management team will investigate the concerns that have been raised and take any appropriate action identified through that process.’
The TWI claims it’s not a political organisation but it is supported by Patriotic Alternative, Britain’s largest neo-Nazi group.
Plaid Cymru, which runs a minority administration in the Senedd, has said fascists are not welcome in Wales.
Locals in Llanafan Fawr (population 470) cannot fathom why the group has chosen their village and point out that Powys is largely a ‘whites-only’ county already.
They confirmed that the workmen constructing the cabins and a small number of visitors who attended an open day last September were all white.
The two structures, visible from a stony track, are both unfinished, and no work was being carried out when the Mail visited last week.
The TWI claims it’s not a political organisation but it is supported by Patriotic Alternative, Britain’s largest neo-Nazi group
A sign at the Powys site warning people against ‘trespass’. It refers to ‘federal authorities’, which do not exist in the UK
Powys Council confirmed it has not received any planning applications relating to the site
One appears to be a hall or meeting room for visitors, the other is more of a lookout post perched in trees and overlooking the track, the only access route into the site.
The steep and overgrown field has a couple of large tents pitched on its perimeter along with a wooden latrine.
Locals have voiced their concerns that none of the structures look strong enough to withstand the wind and rain of a typical Welsh winter.
The Woodlander Initiative says its membership criteria does not mention colour or ethnicity and its constitution states it is a non-political organisation aimed at ‘building community, friendships, skills and fraternity.
On a previous visit one of the builders, who gave his name as Russ, said anyone was welcome. He cited the case of an Iranian man who had been given permission to use some of the group’s land in Wales.
The builder referred journalists to the TWI’s website which describes the organisation as a British organisation working to improve the future and safeguard the freedoms of British people.
It goes on to define British people as a ‘distinct group comprising of [sic] the English, Welsh, Scots and Irish’.
But the group is giving mixed messages to anyone who strays up the track to the entrance gate.
A wooden sign 10 yards past the gate says Welcome to the Woods but on the gate itself it states: ‘Warning deep unseen excavations. Woodland regeneration, strictly no entry’.
And a laminated sheet of A4 states ‘No Admittance’ and threatens a fine of £100,000 for anyone trespassing on Woodlander Initiative land.
The notice refers to ‘federal authorities’ despite no federal system existing in the UK. This appears to provide further evidence of TWI’s American influence.
One of the tents that has been pitched at the five-acre countryside site
The Woodlander Initiative threatens a fine of £100,000 for anyone trespassing on its land
Their nearest neighbour, sheep farmer John Weedon, 80, said he’s had no problems since the Initiative took over the land next door.
He said: ‘I know all about their reputation but they’ve not inflicted anything on me. They seem ok.
‘I’ve seen the signs they put up, but if you stake your claim somewhere, you need to protect it.’
TWI leader Simon Birkett is a former member of the BNP and National Front. He spoke at the Patriotic Alternative annual conference in 2024.
In an article for TWI members Birkett invoked conspiracy theories including the ‘Great Replacement’ and said the group was part of attempts to ‘create an elite, a vanguard, an alternative group who will actively do what’s best for us’.
Patriotic Alternative leader Mark Collett – a former British National Party official – has repeatedly championed the land-buying scheme and his activists have camped on the TWI land in Wales.
Writing in the neo-Nazi magazine Heritage and Destiny, Mr Collett described TWI as ‘a fantastic initiative that allows nationalists to pool their money in order to purchase land and property’.
‘This is a long-term plan that will hopefully catch on and turn into the establishment of indigenous heartlands; places for our people,’ he wrote.
Dr William Allchorn, a senior research fellow at Anglia Ruskin University who is an expert on the British far-Right, previously described how buying land is part of a broader strategy for fascist groups.
‘It’s the idea of creating a separate white heartland or parallel society where they can be completely off grid,’ he said.
‘This is worrying because while these camps can look fairly innocuous they involve things like paramilitary training or training in martial arts.’
No building work was being carried out at the site when the Daily Mail visited last week
Locals in the village of Llanafan Fawr (population 470) point out that Powys is largely a ‘white’s only’ county already.
Dr Allchorn said it was concerning that TWI appears to have ‘progressed fairly far’ and that it has parallels with groups in the United States, East Germany and South Africa where ‘neo-Nazis have been buying up land in order to create white-exclusive towns or communities that live in the style of the Nazi past’.
He said that British far-Right groups had previously ‘flirted’ with buying land but had largely been focused on trying to enter electoral politics, but their focus has shifted since the pandemic.
‘They view this as a key moment,’ Dr Allchorn said. ‘If they can find land or they can find a place to build this enclave, it fits neatly with the broader ideological vision which all far-Right groups are aiming towards, which is the erasure and exclusion of minorities and migrants.’
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