ONE of the last residents living under the shadow of Wylfa Newydd has spoken of the toll the proposed development has taken on her life and award winning business.

Katie Hayward, of Felin Honey Bees, at Cemlyn, whose ancestral home and business is by the proposed nuclear construction, fears losing everything.

Mrs Hayward, known as the ‘Queen Bee of Anglesey,’ says the fight to protect her business and home - in her family from the 1500s to the 1900s - which she rents from the National Trust, has been “devastating.”

She says the strain has, at her lowest ebb, even led her to “contemplate suicide.”

“Me and my husband gave everything up to start up this business," she said.

My parents even sold their home to help.” said Mrs Hayward. “We have won a dozen top Wales food and business awards, our products are in Waitrose.

We have taught bee keeping and use ‘bee therapy,’ to help people.

I can’t sleep now, I am so worried. I have nearly 80 plus hives of Welsh black bees here, and many more across Wales.

I will have to move them, our cattle and animals. We haven’t been offered any mitigation and were even overlooked in the Environmental Impact Assessment.” She added.

Mrs Hayward recently spoke at a preliminary planning inspectorate hearing on October 25, which examined Horizon Nuclear Power’s Development Consent Order (DCO) application.

“It was horrible, in a hanger at the Mona showground, faced by a barrage of barristers,” she said. “It was very intimidating.” Despite media reports Horizon is negotiating with her, Mrs Hayward says she has “heard nothing officially.

A Horizon spokesperson said: “We have undertaken significant engagement with Mrs Hayward for some years and have kept her updated with information regarding work going on around the site, and of the development plans as they have been refined.

"We are committed to continuing that engagement, both with Mrs Hayward as a tenant and with her landlord, the National Trust, and we are aiming to reach an amicable agreement in due course.

"The potential impacts from the construction of Wylfa Newydd have been considered in relation to both the National Trust property and the Felin Honey Bees business from an environmental perspective.

“These have formed part of the environmental assessments we have undertaken for the Wylfa Newydd development area and beyond.

"Further discussion between ourselves and Mrs Hayward will build upon the conclusions of these assessments and how we can address her concerns.

"The assessments undertaken have been subject to public and stakeholder consultation; as part of this process we have engaged extensively with the National Trust, as her landlords. “Construction work will not take place until we have secured our Development Consent Order to build the power station, well over twelve months away and subject to it being granted.”