FW: (Appeal to help)Low Impact Building Update

Fri Mar 14 12:48:07 GMT 2008

hello,

thought this may reach this list anyway, but thought i'd forward it on just in case.

katy

> From: builders at simondale.net
> To: katy.fowler at hotmail.co.uk
> Subject: Low Impact Building Update
> Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:20:44 +0000
> 
> Hello friends,
> It's time for the next chapter of our progress in the world of low-impact building.
> 
> We have been working hard on the planning application for our ecovillage, the Lammas project. You might remember that our proposal was rejected by the county council in October. In my opinion their grounds were pretty weak, given that our application was thorough and tailor made to fit the new county planning policy for low impact development.  They did at least give us a long list of reasons for rejection which we have addressed point by point, tightening up our plan beyond belief. We have just resubmitted the application today. For the short news, this means that there is a chance of local approval by June, meaning possibly getting on the land and start building in late summer/autumn with a good wind behind us. Otherwise, and possibly more likely is that we will, with a planning appeal, be ready to start in spring 2009. If you fancy the quicker version (I do) you can help us out by writing a very short letter of support. Either way, until we get on the land. If this is the case I wi
> ll be organising more, smaller building projects/events this year which I hope some of you will join me on.
> 
> -
> The whole story about planning permission and how to get to build a house like the one we did is a long one that I hope to add to the website soon. In short, we built that house without planning permission because we believe it was morally right to do. In Britain you are quite within your rights to do this so long as you apply for retrospective permission when asked to do so. The local planning dept will generally only ask you to if somebody makes a complaint to them about you. Of the people I know doing this sort of thing in the UK, this is the route that most of them have followed and I would generally recommend this approach.
> 
> The house that we made was on somebody else's land and we have now had to hand it over to them and move on. Whilst we were looking for our own piece of land to have a go on, Pembrokeshire came up with their new low impact development planning policy. It invites people to do this kind of building and living so long as they can show that they will work that land and make the majority of their basic living off it. Whilst we might have originally questioned the condition, our experiences of living closer to the land have left us thinking that working that land is both a natural inclination and probably one of the best ways to cope with both climate change and the (now underway) decline in oil production.
> 
> We decided to have a go at applying under this new policy on our own land as a way of having more security and progressing this kind of living as an available alternative for larger numbers of people. For a variety of reasons we decided to get together with a group of people who had consulted on the policy and already started work on plans for a settlement of 20-40 holdings, The Lammas Project. This was two years ago, since then we have done lots of paperwork, had lots of passionate support and opposition, and scaled back to 9 smallholdings to make it more palatable. So it's not been the fastest way for us to get on the land but it is still very promising that it might be a really significant step in bringing this kind of living much more into the mainstream. The hope is that we will show a well functioning example of this kind of project as well as to share our templates for the planning application paperwork and legal structures etc so that it will be much easier for future applican
> ts (you lot included).
> 
> -
> Which brings me to: Last time I wrote, it was to offer an opportunity to come building (Hoorah to those who did - it was magic). This time I hope you don't mind if I ask a favour of you. We could really do with a lot of letters of support to Pembrokeshire Planning Office to let them know that people want things like this to happen. I know the world is full of much more appealing things to do. So this is how easy it is, you can do it by email right now and it will take less than 1 minute. Just compose a new message and copy/paste the following
> 
> To: planningenquiries at pembrokeshire.gov.uk
> Cc: simon.dale at lammas.org.uk
> Subject: Registering Support for the Lammas Project
> Message: I would like to register my support for the planning application resubmission by Lammas Low Impact Initiatives Ltd for a settlement of nine eco-smallholdings at Pont y Gafel, Glandwr, Pembrokeshire.  Yours sincerely
> THEN ADD YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS
> 
> You are of course welcome to add any extra comments about why you think it's a good thing. Cc'ing me in will mean that we can keep track of how many supporting letters we have, last time it seemed that they counted quite a lot less than we did. If you or any of your friends live in Pembrokeshire then please please do it or ask them to,these count for even more. All letters need to be recieved within the next 3 weeks.
> 
> Have you done it? Thank you so much - it wasn't that hard was it. In fact I suspect it was so easy that you might be persuaded to do another one. Karuna is a great permaculture project in Shropshire. They are currently appealing against some rather rough treatment by the planners. You can read more about it at www.karuna.org.uk or you can just take my word for it and fill in theirs too
> 
> To: teame1 at pins.gsi.gov.uk
> Cc: fullwhenempty at hotmail.com
> Subject: Registering Support for Karuna Project Planning Appeals
> Message: I would like to register my support for the following Karuna Project planning appeals by James (Janta) & Merav Wheelhouse, Karuna, Picklescott, Church Stretton, SY6 6NT. Planning Inspectorate Ref no's 2063851, caravans enforcement appeal, 2060815 (tool shed enforcement appeal), 2064925 (polytunnel planning appeal). Yours sincerely
> THEN ADD YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS
> 
> 
> Again feel free to add any thoughts. These need to be recieved by the 24th March, so please don't delay.
> 
> Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. The public demonstration of support for projects like these is critical in tipping the balance to a culture of regularly allowing this sort of thing. The tide is really starting to turn on this now, and it could be a great route to both true sustainability and the realising of many peoples dreams. And wouldn't that be a great thing.
> 
> -
> Finally BUILDING OPPOTUNITIES. 25 or so of us recently had a great time building a welcome point shelter for a community woodland project. They paid my time and the materials costs meaning that everyone else could come for free. Everyone got the chance to have a go at building a turf roofed timber frames of the type used in our 'woodland home' and five days later, the project got the building they needed. In addition a fantastic communal effort meant that we wined and dined finely together around a campfire with plenty of songs and laughter!
> Whilst we are waiting for the Lammas planning permission to come through I would like to do more things like this. I am particularly interested in housing people/ families who are trying to look after land or who would by getting a house, be enabled to do so. I do have a few plans up my sleeve but at this point I am open to ideas or proposals so I thought I'd put this out there to all of you....
> 
> 
> That's all for now. Thank you VERY much for reading (and writing!).
> I look forward to building together soon.
> 
> With love and power to you
> Simon
> x
> 
> 
> If you would like me to stop sending you these emails, please reply with the subject line 'Remove'
> 
> If you would like to send planning support letters by post, the addresses are
> 
> FOR LAMMAS:
> Planning Department
> Pembrokeshire County Council
> 1B County Hall
> Haverfordwest
> Pembrokeshire
> SA61 1TP
> 
> FOR KARUNA:
> Room 3/21 Hawk
> Temple Quay House
> 2 The Square
> Temple Quay
> Bristol BS1 6PN
> 

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