Did anyone you know ever stay at the Hains' boutique, self-catering cottage known as Neath Valley View, near Aberdulais?

I'm afraid that if you fancied staying there yourself but haven't up to now, well you may have missed the boat. The owners' website NeathValleyView.com is no longer available.

http://www.neathvalleyview.com/Default.aspx?page=2

The cottage details may be found on webcottages.co.uk if you fancy a look at what you've missed out on, but try and book and it shows it is no longer available through them.

http://www.webcottages.co.uk/swansea-abertawe-cottage-sleeps-3-near-beach-ref-13325

And it is unbookable through any other site I can find it on. Pity - it's listed as a Romantic break and Coastal with webcottages. Just what I was looking for which was why I went to Fishguard, which is much more romantic than Aberdulais (no, really) and considerably more coastal. In fact, how on earth can a place lying between Aberdulais and Ynysarwed be described as coastal? There must have been a few disappointed clients if they thought they could slip outside and paddle in the sea. More like go outside and fall into the Neath Canal or slip on a cowpat, surely?

Anyway, if it has bitten the dust I am not surprised. You didn't need to be a Brain of Britain to work out a holiday cottage near Aberdulais is hardly going to set the Welsh tourist industry alight. If a self-catering cottage advertising Aberdulais Falls and the Waterfall Country was a goer then places like Pontneddfechan would have them. And inns like the refurbished Dulais Rock wouldn't have gone bust just after opening.

But until May 2015 Neath Valley View had a distinct advantage over other similar businesses because the owners' overheads in terms of things like council tax, services and insurance on the main address were paid for by the taxpayer. I can tell you that in the years since IPSA has been responsible for overseeing MPs' expenses (since 2010) Peter Hain claimed £51,553.46 towards the running costs of his Aberdulais "second home". It breaks down to an average of £10,310.69 for every year since then. If someone gave me that amount of money every year I could have a second home too - I could afford to buy outright that caravan in Fishguard, and not even rent it out to the plebs, which Peter has tried to do with his "granny annexe"!

It makes a big difference when you have to pay for things out of your own pocket and less than one year after Peter Hain's MP expenses have dried up, it looks like the plug has been pulled on the holiday let business. Unless, of course, you know differently.