IT WAS the brook immortalised by 1950s singer Donald Peers in his signature song In a Shady Nook by A Babbling Brook.

Legend has it that Nantyffin brook at Betws provided the inspiration behind the song which Betws-born Peers – who at the peak of his fame received 3,000 fan letters a week – performed at each of his concerts.

But now Betws councillors have been alarmed to hear that the babbling brook may babble no more.

Local resident Robert Bolton, of Tir Elinor Farm, is seeking planning permission to set up a mini-hydro electric plant – and part of the scheme involves a concrete dam across the Nantyffin brook.

Members are asking Carmarthenshire County Council for further details of the plans.

They are also calling for a site meeting.

“It’s not a river, but a brook,” Alderman Arnallt James told colleagues. “I hope this doesn’t happen.

“This, after all, is the babbling brook – its source is on Betws Mountain and this will be only half-a-mile from its source.”

Peers, who during the early 1960s had his own television show, also appeared in several films.

His career faded following a two-year stint in Australia, but he made a spectacular comeback when Please Don’t Go reached number three in the UK singles chart in 1969. He followed this with a number of singles and albums.

He died in Sussex in 1973, at the age of 65.