Two pregnant alpacas are at the centre of a planning row after a landowners bid to build them a barn for the winter was objected to by angry villagers.
Landowner Hesham Fada, 60, has hit out over the year-long wait he has faced while trying to secure planning permission to build the shelter.
Mr Fada has warned that the mothers-to-be will perish in the freezing cold over winter unless he gets the green light to build them and his other livestock a barn.
But villagers living near Mr Fadas land objected to his planning application - claiming the barn would be too big and scar the countryside.
Locals say the area, in the Hampshire countryside near the hamlet of Brimpton Common, is completely unspoiled and the large barn would destroy its character.
Hesham Fada has said his alpacas will die if he is not given permission to build a barn
His two alpacas, Scary and Mad, are both two years old and both due to give birth in December this year
Egyptian Mr Fada wants to build a 300sqm barn with a steel frame and a timber-clad exterior along with four pens on his two-and-a-quarter acres of land.
The property management company owner from Twickenham, London, stressed that the farm was not a commercial venture but merely a retirement project.
Mr Fada plans to move to the area eventually and his two adult sons are currently helping him out with the farm.
Mr Fada calls one of the alpacas Scary because its skittish and the other Mad because it runs after the other one.
Alongside the alpacas, which are both two years old and due to give birth in December, he has eight goats, a sheep, some chickens and a few turkeys.
He hopes to have 50 chickens one day and introduce 20 ostriches to the site as well.
There is one shelter on the land but Mr Fada said it was just a roof and still open to the elements.
The farmer submitted his application in January this year, and hoped to have the barn in place by winter, but Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council are yet to make a decision ten months on.
He has threatened to build it without permission.
So far 21 objections have been lodged on the council website, all from residents in Brimpton Common where the average house price is just under £1 million.
Mr Fada said: I thought the planning application would be approved in three months, it should be built by now.
They are trying to punish me, but dont punish the alpacas, it is excuse after excuse.
It has messed my plan up.
The farmer continued: After I retire I need something to do, I love animals, you cant stop me loving animals.
It is not for a business, the land is not large, it is not commercial.
I cant sleep, I am worried about the animals, what I am going to do with them.
I am going to build a shelter without planning permission, my neighbour did it and no one told him anything.
I have got the right to protect my animals, I am trying to follow the law.
He added that his alpacas are lovely and that their noises sound like music.
Mr Fada said his alpacas make a very sweet sound, describing them as sounding like music
They are lovely, they have got character.
They make extremely lovely sounds, it is like music, they make a very sweet sound. Mr Fada said.
In his objection the former leader of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Ken Rhatigan, argued that access via a narrow road was dangerous and there was no justification for the barn.
He served as leader for nearly three years, from May 2019 to February 2022, and he was still a councillor when he submitted his objection to Mr Fadas barn in April.
The 63-year-old said: There is no agricultural justification for a large barn on the site.
In addition there is the landscape harm of any building on open arable land, it has a scarring effect on the clear open countryside.
The new access onto a narrow lane is both dangerous and not suitable for large agricultural machinery.
Mr Fada wants to build a 300sqm barn along with four pens on his two-and-a-quarter acres of land (pictured)
Mr Rhatigan from St Andrews, Scotland, has lived in North Hampshire for over 20 years and he worked as a financial advisor before he became leader of the council.
A resident in the nearby hamlet of Brimpton Common, on the Hampshire-Berkshire border, said the beautiful valley was unspoiled.
Grahame Hawker is a trustee of the local allotment charity, the Brimpton Common Fuel Allotment.
In his objection he said: This valley is a beautiful feature in this area and very unusually, it is completely unspoiled at present.
Having a large industrial building will destroy the landscape character of the area.
I also fear that this will be the prelude to the downgrading of the landscape, paving the way for an application to build a large residence on this plot in the future.
The addition of an unauthorised entrance onto the highway gives locals little faith in future actions on this land.
Brian Smith, who also lives in the delightful hamlet of Brimpton Common, wrote in his objection about the impact of traffic on the very narrow Hockford lane.
Brimpton Common is a delightful little rural hamlet established around a triangle of roads, he said.
There have been many accidents here and recently a major one at which there was a fatality.
From the details of the application it appears that it is intended to establish a major agricultural operation resulting in an increase in vehicular traffic including lorries which will all exit at this dangerous junction.
It is virtually impossible for a lorry to use the lane.
The development of this site is most inappropriate, it would despoil a very rural area and have a detrimental effect on the wildlife.
One neighbour comment was in favour of the application, saying the land had been left to mother nature for far too long.