Ecovillage
Network UK
Ecovillage
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Ecovillage Network UK's website is an information super 'garden path' for everyone in Britain who wants to live a more environmentally conscious life, both ecologically and socially.
We believe that with the right information at the right time and in an accessible form, we can link up with like minds tell stories of success and survival, tribulations and triumphs, and create livable, responsive, human scale, biologically rich pockets of sanity and creativity in Britain and around the globe.
If you want to be part of the UK's eco-revolution you've come to the right place.
Ecovillage - Sustainable, low-impact community with some shared
ownership/management of land.
Along with our sister organisations
GEN and
GEN Europe we describe
existing Ecovillages as 'projects' and groups and individuals that
are developing and planning future projects as 'initiatives'.
We are a couple with three young children who are looking for other families or individuals to join us in buying land, preferably in Southern England or Wales. Our vision is of a small community working on both individual and collective projects as part of a venture that may include gardens, orchards, woodland, aquaculture, livestock pasture, rural crafts and involvement with ecological issues in the wider community. We envisage private dwellings set amongst collective space, and part-time external work to supplement income from the holding. Our orientation is practical more than spiritual, ethically oriented to an environmental lifestyle, but humorous more than puritanical. We want to be near people and schools, and to rely as little as possible on motor vehicles, so location will be important. We'd very much like to hear from others with an interest in our aims, especially - but not exclusively - if a financial commitment can be made. We aim to buy by the end of 2003.
Cordelia Rowlatt & Chris Smaje
Yew Tree Cottage
Tintern
Monmouthshire NP16 6SQ
Tel. 01292 689880
e-mail. Cordelia_Chris@hotmail.com
I haven't wanted to push 'Cumbria Environmental University' while it remains just an idea, but this year is make or break and it will either happen or it won't and I've something of a feeling that nature wants it to happen. I know there are good moves around eco-villages all around, but an environmental university would significantly help raise the profile. Maybe it's time to start letting people know who'd want to help.
Overview: Last year Allerdale Borough Council started thinking whether to
acquire Broughton Moor from the Ministry of Defence -- a 1050 acre former
Royal Naval Armament Depot between Cockermouth and Workington in North West
Cumbria, UK. At the same time they wondered what to do with the site and
sought out proposals. We registered an expression of interest based on an
integrated proposal to develop the site as an environmental university /
eco-village / organic farm / managed woodland / visitors centre. A two-page
overview of the project proposal is downloadable at:
http://homepages.tesco.net/~d.saunders/ceu/CEU.overview.doc
News Summary: Interest has grown slowly in Cumbria, but faster amongst groups
and individuals who can help plan, design, create and deliver the project...
Including a group in Cumbria with plans for an Eco-Theme Park - there's room
for both on the site, and plenty of synergy. This year we'll be asked to
submit a more detailed plan which will cost around £50,000 to create.
We'd expect our proposal to be short-listed, and then to be invited to create
a detailed project proposal and feasibility study that could cost from
£1/2m to £3/4 million to put together (!) We hope support will
continue to grow to the point where neither of these is a problem. If all
goes well we could be starting to build as soon as 2004. A two-page newsletter
with more detailed news is at:
http://homepages.tesco.net/~d.saunders/ceu/CEU.news.2003.January.doc
Thanks everso and best wishes for 2003,
David
--
David Saunders david@dns.org.uk
Cumbria Environmental University Initiative
34 Middlewood, Skelmersdale, Lancashire WN8 6SR
Phone +44 1695 51018, mobile +44 7790 779470
Great news - the Planning Inspectorate have given us 5 year temporary
permission.
The press release follows, the full decision text can be seen on our website
- http://www.stewardwood.org
Thankyou to everyone who has helped us, in letter writing and other ways, especially to Simon Fairlie and Chapter 7.
Come and celebrate at our campfire music night next week (Tuesday 20th, 7pm onwards, bring instruments and voices and cabaret acts!). Some food and drink is provided, for donations, bring more if you like (vegan please). See you there? If you need to stay, please check first as we now have lots of planning conditions...
-----------------------------------------------------------
NEWS RELEASE
14-08-2002
Sustainable Woodland Community gains planning permission
Today the inhabitants of Steward Community Woodland received a 5 year temporary planning permission to continue their sustainable woodland living project.
This decision comes as the culmination of two years of planning applications and appeals to the Dartmoor National Park Authority and the Planning Inspectorate.
The permission means that the 7 benders and assorted communal structures (bikeshed, longhouse, kitchen, workshop) are now safe, and that the community now have a five year period to further develop the project and achieve their aims.
The permission has been granted subject to various conditions to safeguard
the low impact nature of the project, and the Dartmoor National Park Authority
will have the chance to annually assess the group's progress.
Pete Cow, a member of the community, comments: "We are overjoyed by this far sighted decision, which shows that the Planning Inspectorate recognises the importance of our project, and fully supports what we are doing here.
We knew it would be a struggle to get planning permission under the present planning system as it makes no systematic allowances for low impact developments of this kind. We are delighted to finally get a positive result after all our hard work.
It is heartening to see the Inspectorate referring to the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21 and the Government's commitments to supporting sustainable practice.
The planning conditions attached to this permission will ensure that this project remains sustainable and continues to have a positive impact on the local ecology and the surrounding community."
Notes to editors:
1. For interviews phone 01647 440233 or 07980 155194
2. For the full text of the decision visit our website at http://www.stewardwood.org
3. The attached planning conditions are summerised as follows:
>The permission lapses at the end of five years.
>No petrol or diesel generators to be used on site.
>No more than three resident's vehicles on site.
>No more than ten visitor's vehicles on site.
>No new caravan, mobile home, vehicle, building, structure or tent to be brought onto the site, positioned or erected without the written approval of the DNPA.
>The present structures cannot be moved without the written permission of the DNPA.
>A written report to be submitted to the DNPA on the 1st April every year detailing the activities carried out in compliance with the Business Plan, the Management and Biodiersity Action Plan, and criteria for sustainable development.
4. Project background -
Steward Community Woodland was set up in April 2000 as a permaculture based sustainable living project, integrating conservation woodland management, organic growing and low impact living. We aim to encourage and enable environmental awareness and solutions by providing examples of sustainable land use and appropriate technologies.
We live in canvas and wood structures on the side of the Wray valley one mile south of Moretonhampstead. Steward Wood is a 32 acre plantation consisting mostly of Japanese Larch, Scots' Pine and Ash. There are presently six of us living here, with a 5 month old baby. For more information see our website. --
Hello, we are looking for like-minded people who wish to self-build in an
environmentally sensitive way with whom we hope to achieve something that
is slightly different from the more typical EVNetwork community. The
differences are:
We do not want to be part of a cooperative or co housing set up, whether
under one roof or many, but would rather own individual homes outright and
preferably freehold. We do not necessarily want to be tied to group
activities, such as a cooperative company providing part or all of our
employment, though
obviously we have nothing against this on a voluntary basis.
The similarities are:
We do like the idea of knowing that our immediate neighbours are ecologically
and ethically sound people.
We do want to live in an environmentally sensitive house.
We do want to share and barter with our neighbours, look after each other’s
gardens during holidays, organise alternative schooling for our kids, share
power sources etc. We just don’t want to be bound to do so.
There are other reasons for us to be looking for like minded people though,
the main one being that what with prices moving upwards so fast our
funds
are looking a little measly, and buying a building plot for more than one
dwelling invariably works out cheaper per plot. There is a lot of stuff
to work out in order to achieve our aims and this note is really just a way
of seeing if there is anybody out there with the same intentions and in the
same pickle as us. If we could get interested parties together who are able
to move at the same kind of speed, fancy the same kind of areas and are looking
for the same kind of place we could
really start to look into legalities, finding a plot, deciding on the details
and the exact objective etc.
As a guide it is probably worth saying that we are looking for something
in the UK costing not more than £45,000, rural or semi-rural and not
too
far north So if you are interested in contacting us or indeed if you
have a plot that you think we might be interested in, please contact the
EVNetwork who
will post your message or pass it on.
Contact: Justin Rose and Alfie Spencer - 01993 822 131
Tania Branigan
Guardian Unlimited
Thursday September 6, 2001
To the inhabitants of Steward Wood, it represents an idealistic vision. To nearby residents, Dartmoor national park authorities and the planning inspectorate, it is a naive and unwelcome experiment.
After 16 months, innumerable arguments and thousands of pounds in legal bills, an eight strong community attempting to live sustainably on the land has been told to leave its home.
The members, whose ages range from 24 to the late 50s, set up the project near the Devon village of Moretonhampstead in April last year, hoping to find a simpler, more responsible way of living. They stumped up £50,000 to buy the unused 32 acre plot, but did not apply for residential use of the land until two months after they moved there. Four months later that was rejected.
Now, after more months of debate, the planning inspectorate has backed the park authority's ruling. The group said it will continue to fight and plans to take the case to the high court on the grounds that the planning process infringes their rights under the Human Rights Act, but is running short of cash having already spent £6,000 on legal bills.
"I don't think anyone's got any objection to their principles, but there's a right and a wrong place to carry this out and we didn't think this was the right place for it," said James Aven, enforcement officer for the authority.
"Obviously, neither does the planning inspectorate. It's an unauthorised change of use of the land and they didn't have planning permission.
"The residential use of the land falls outside what we allow. We are all aware of the need to reuse brown field sites and maybe that would have been a better option than moving into healthy land which has been there many years without any residence."
Project members argue that to manage the land while living elsewhere would defeat the point and that in any case they could not afford housing without taking on full time jobs which would leave them no time to work in the woods.
But local residents share the authority's concerns. David Cannon, who lives in Steward Hamlet and whose garden adjoins the woodland, is worried by the precedent the community could set.
"I agree with certain of their aims, but they are going about this the wrong way," he said. "If this was allowed to go through it would mean that any woods, any land anywhere in the national park or elsewhere in Britain, could be occupied.
"They have been there a year and a half and nothing has been grown. They talk about sustainability, but they go up to the shops like anyone else."
The community members claim to be "surprised and disappointed" by the planning inspectorate's decision, but concede they always expected to run into difficulties.
"We planned the project and moved on to the land in the knowledge that permission is very, very difficult to obtain and people who want to live like this end up leaving the country," said Ben Leary, who worked as a computer technician before joining the project.
"The planning authorities get upset with anything that isn't a square box they understand and have policies for.
"It is our human right to be able to live off the earth and to take responsibility for our own production and our own lives," he said.
While others argue that the community are naive idealists, the members point out that they have already survived one winter, and argue that they are well prepared for woodland life.
They gained experience of coppicing, felling and other skills by working on similar projects such as Tinker's Bubble, Somerset.
They are equally dismissive of conservation concerns, pointing out that the apparently pristine forest is in fact a former conifer plantation.
"Its value for conservation comes through its potential for conversion back to broadleaf woodland. Otherwise it will just turn into bramble and sycamore," said Mr Leary.
Links to the GuardianArticle 1, Article 2and Stewardwood's website
Tony Gosling
Wednesday December 20, 2000
from
Link
to the article
One of the biggest green-field housing programmes since the war is underway, blighting every community it touches. Meanwhile environmental self-builders are being refused planning permission.
Tony Gosling reports on Britain’s environmental housing pioneers - forced into hiding by outdated planning laws.
When a developer gets planning permission on agricultural land he may as well be printing money. No wonder the green-field developers are keen when the land can leap in value up to a thousand times.
Frustrated country-dwellers are having to take extreme measures, some even buying up neighbouring fields at inflated prices to make sure developers can’t get their hands on them. Resentment from those who’ve had nearby land targeted by these developers isn’t simply NIMBYism any more.
Windfall profits from the green-field housing goldmine, they feel, aren’t just wrong in my back yard, they’re simply wrong.
Developers seem to have a rabbit hutch mentality, squeezing as many houses as possible into the smallest space. But there is surely no sense in replicating our cities’ ‘legoland’ estates in the countryside? Destroying much of the rural character in the process.
We spend more on our home than anything else in our lives, yet only a handful of us ever get to shape our living spaces. Surely some of the 4.4 million new homes the government say are needed can be self-built? If not, a fundamental avenue of human creativity is being stifled.
So can developers be persuaded to try different approaches? How about breaking up fields into smallholdings each with a modest home; ecological houses designed as part of a living landscape? What about building homes in woodlands - where they aren’t a blot on the landscape?
With the odd exception the volume developers aren’t listening to the green argument. And when their self-builders attempt this approach they’re knocked back every step of the way.
A planning system that’s supposed to support sustainable settlement and incorporate the UN’s Agenda 21, treats them as chancers trying to get planning permission only to sell the land on, even if they have the land covenanted or entrusted so this won’t happen. If there are sympathetic councillors or planners in town they’re invariably voices in the wilderness.
Government and volume house builders are reluctant to explore this green approach and most potential self-builders are put off by the planning hurdles. But a steady trickle of green pioneers are by-passing the planning system and are building in secret. Disillusioned by a planning system that brands them as antisocial they have adopted a attitude of ‘build and be damned’.
‘Peter’ doesn’t want to give his real name. Five years ago he bought 50 acres of West Country woodland for £30k. After spending much of the intervening time settling into modest temporary structures in the woods he’s just sold his town house. Now instead of a bathroom he has a stream to wash in. Rather than a flush loo a compost toilet. People might say he’s roughing it but Peter says he’s simply combining the old ways with the best of the new.
As we sit in his open living space, a tarpaulin above our heads affords the only protection from the elements. The room is literally a part of the woods. He takes a long look past his oak trees, across the valley, and sums up why he took the plunge: “I wanted the real income: enjoyment of life”.
Living amongst the trees, Peter has a different relationship with them than the industrial forestry gangs that once managed his wood. His work-pattern follows the changing seasons. He has two comfortable benders, traditional gypsy dwellings with tarpaulin cover over bent Hazel poles and with a raised floor. Mod cons include phone, laptop and eMail.
He has never made a secret of living here and has a good working relationship with neighbouring landowners. They’re co-operating in Peter’s initiative of establishing a new public footpath across the woods. “What is the point of having these magnificent native woodlands”, he says, “if I can’t share them?”
But neither does he advertise his presence. A sympathetic local planner received a complaint about him but advised Peter to keep his head down and get on with it. He can see a value in what Peter’s doing: “If I had to chase every hippie out of a wood round here I wouldn’t be able to get my job done.” But not all planners take that attitude.
For the meantime Peter is content to manage the wood understanding that some day soon, even though he owns the land, he may have this most modest home pulled down under a planning enforcement order.
Woodland is popular for these renegade builders because it’s easier to keep out of the way and there’s a ready supply of heating and building material. As soon as the issue of planning permission comes up though, the problems will start.
On advice from planners, council committees are ruling the vast majority of those who take this approach out of order. The attitude seems to be ‘if we can tax it you can do it’, almost the opposite of the green approach.
Those builders with the only attitude that seems to work, that of build first - ask questions later, are forced into hiding. But the longer they’re resident the more likely they’ll be able to stay, so there are many people around the country keeping their heads down.
So why not the little guy? One of the problems is what they’re up against. Professional developers plan strategically, buying land they know may be zoned for development and often influencing where these zones will be many years in advance.
Green builders are consistently being ensnared in legal catch-alls designed to protect the countryside from the volume house building industry. Planning law makes little or no allowance for the environmental impact of buildings. The ‘presumption against development’, brought in to safeguard the green belt, is stopping the environmental pioneers.
Simon Ormerod has had a lifelong interest in renewable energy. He set out in 1994 to design a house that didn’t need mains gas or electricity. The planners refused to answer his written requests. On his second attempt to get planning permission for his earth sheltered dwelling near Wadebridge in Cornwall he went to see the local Director of Planning, who was less than sympathetic. “Try this and I’ll have you out within a fortnight”. Simon built without permission.
When he was finally granted planning five years later one of the councillors on the committee wanted to know why he didn’t ask first? ‘I did but you turned me down twice’ he replied.
His earth-sheltered home is south-facing, designed to capture as much of the sun’s rays as possible. The underground walls insulate the building and take up the daytime heat, like a storage heater, keeping the home warm through the night.
Simon has put a lot of work into reducing his power needs. He won the EuroSolar prize for inspiring renewable energy projects in 1998. Despite several heart attacks his enthusiasm, energy and ingenuity for experimenting remains strong. “Reduce your energy needs and you can be fabulously wealthy on very, very little,” he says. “I have hardly any money but I consider myself one of the richest men in the world.”
The value of the land underneath a home is almost always far more than the cost of building the house. When we buy a house most of the money goes on acquiring the planning permission underneath the house, not the building itself. Self-builders can save more than half the cost of the house by bypassing this massive hidden cost charged by developers and getting permission themselves.
There is notorious pressure on planning officers and committee members to favour particular developers for personal gain. In Doncaster a protracted criminal investigation, ‘Donnygate’, is probing alleged serious malpractice of councillors on the planning committee.
Cotswold sculptor Jack Everett and partner Emma Iveson wanted to build their own home. Seventeen years ago, in a pub in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire they bought a disused quarry and woods for £1000. They are determined to look after the land and make it the permanent family home.
Three wooden buildings have sprung up since. A comfortable tai chi practice space, a studio and the couple’s modest home. Strong wooden piles support tiered floor-spaces within the steep sloping quarry.
Woodburning stoves, fed from the surrounding woods, keep the open-plan spaces warm. Water is harvested from the roofs, stored in tanks under the building and pumped up to the bath, hot-tub and sauna. Sheep’s wool and 2 inch thick cork insulate the walls, floors and roofs of the buildings and a low-flush composting system deals with the kitchen and human waste.
Emma’s bold fabrics and printed designs personalise the spacious interiors, which are lit by overhead oil lanterns. “Most of the light is from above in the woods, so placing and angling of our windows is crucial.”
Over the years they’ve spent about £25,000 on the three buildings “Since we both live and work from the quarry that’s not bad. The difficulty is the renewal of temporary planning permission creates phases of corrosive insecurity. But it passes, and new resolve kicks in when local people are so appreciative of the lifestyle. “The planners can force you to take it down or return it to the state it was in before you repaired it.” says Jack, “Or they will do it themselves then charge you, and fine you out of existence.”
They are now living openly with their three children in the Cotswold Quarry but back in the early nineties it was a clandestine existence. They had to park the car on the nearest country lane, listen to make sure there was no-one coming, then dash up the hill with the shopping in case passers-by caught on they were living there. Jack was whispered about in Sheepscombe as the bogeyman who ‘ate local children’.
Things have come on a long way since those first days. They’re good friends now with the neighbours and they have a comfortable home. They organised a tour for 15 international architects from the Ecological Design Association recently – who congratulated the couple on their innovative design. But the fear of demolition remains.
Emma looks pensive as she talks about the possibility of being run out of their home. An uneasy glance toward her child shows anxiety is never far away. “Having your own home pulled down is not the sort of fear you expect civilised people to have to live under. But it’s just not good enough to mope as you walk away from your dream” she says, “You have to fight harder. Don’t forget, some have lost. The planning system can wear you down”.
In the face of some of the tightest planning laws in the world Jack and Emma refuse to bow to the threats. They prefer to risk losing everything for their vision of an affordable, green solution. Designing ones own home should be one of our most fundamental creative urges. Shaping the fabric of our living space without hiring professionals to design and build is a skill almost lost from the British community memory.
Tony Wrench’s turf roofed home in the Pembrokeshire National Park, Brithdir Mawr, was spotted by planners from the air in October 1998. His ‘lost tribe’ have been given notice to pull the house down by local planners. Now he has appealed the Welsh Assembly look set to finally decide its fate any time now.
Yes, there are some real problems in allowing exceptions for green builders: The building industry and speculative developers will dive in to exploit any new avenue to rural planning permission. But with ecological criteria now available for considering the ‘sustainability’ of projects, legally binding conditions can be put on planning permission to disentangled the pioneers from the speculators.
The 15 Criteria drawn up by planning consultancy Chapter 7 is being increasingly seen as a test for rural development. They take into account: car use, effect on the landscape, building materials, water and other utilities, biodiversity and social accountability.
The criteria will be an acid test for planners and volume developers alike. Only if they’re prepared to explore the use of well-defined ecological standards such as these will they gain sustainable ‘credibility’. Otherwise it’s all just marketing-speak.
For those who take the bull by the horns and decide to build, the rewards can be a long time coming. The Kingshill Community near Glastonbury who have been living in fear of eviction from their own land have just got full planning permission after six and a half years.
Peter, Simon, Jack, Emma and many like them could be the precursors of a green, self-build movement in housing, with the volume house builders taking at least some of their environmental ideas on board. But unless people with the vision to build green are encouraged rather than marginalized the green building revolution will be snuffed out before it’s begun.
See Chapter 7 - Rural Planning Group of
"The Land Is Ours"
Tony Gosling
5 Warden Road
Bedminster
Bristol
BS3 1BU
0961 460171/0117 953 1256
January 2001
Thanks to the experiences and skills of called "primitive" societies, we want with a group of families to re-learn and develop sustainable human communities with an abundancy consciousness livelihood.
We wish to live in low impact dwellings aiming self-sufficiency, voluntary simplicity in a deep ecology spirit.
We have an opportunity of land in French South Alpes, on an ancient 60 acres farm in a preserved natural environment.
We are seeking international families with children to share our project including collective decision making co-op and shared childcare.
Contacts : Bertrand et Katia Ollivier Boussac F-47130 Bazens tel:+33
5.53.47.37.65
David et Sophie Maurer Les Hauts de Magny 01280 Prévessin tel:+33
4.50.40.76.75
Association AVEC cela... (Activités Vernaculaire, Ecologie Cohérente
: Convivialité, Entraide, Liberté, Autonomie) c/o David Maurer
Further information
Habitat: Self-built, bioclimatic with natural materials such as stone, adobe, wood, straw-bales, tipi, yurts, etc...Each person or family chooses their independent space and manages their private energy but according to the project with water and energy saving, dry toilets, heating with renewable energies, according to partners motivations and free space. We will create common spaces (non smoking and petsless): cooking and dining rooms, work and art places (music, painting...)
Energy and comfort: Renewable energy as biomass (wood burning for example), thermic solar, photovoltaics ? "the most ecological energy is the one we don't use"(Négawatts). Washing machine, electric light and tools comfort is not really necessary but still usefull ??..Solar systems (produced by who ?) with polluating batteries or with connection with electric network with reverse counter, meaning agreeing with electric national production choices...not convinced, gaz electrogenerator ? justified or temporary solutions ? water generator it's better, why not wood generators ? all questions to be discussed.
Tractors, fuel noisy polluating engine: sure not, except occasional big work ? No till cultivation, geese, donkeys, manual tools, solar oven, lets look for alternative solution at human scale, non polluating convivial tools (according to I.Illich), oldies or modern it doesn't matter, but autonomous and encouraging usage value creation.
Finance: Solidarity and ethic has to be preserved, however money should not become a taboo. Everybody should approach finance in a responsible, realistic and transparent way, discussed among habitants, shareholders and lenders.
We chose to involve financially all habitants even with low capital amounts. Each adult habitant owns equal amount of shares of the legal entity owning the land. This amount will be between 20.000 FF and 40.000 FF / adult. The remaining needed funds are financed by loans with fixed interest rates lent by no bank but by habitants able to do it. Each habitant rents the part of land needed and the habitat since both will be owned by the legal structure which will also pay habitations materials (only if a correspondant fund is lent). Interest rates are paid thanks to renting income.
Human relations: Our goal is to associate for the buying and a responsabilizating
collective management of a living and learning center. This involve to establish
strategies for managing human relations and conflict resolution.
At first, the collective project will concern:
-the choice of principles and guidelines which all members will adhere -the
buying of the land, and paying its taxes
-planification and eco-design of the land using permaculture, Natural Agriculture
of M. Fukuoka and vernacular livelihood of traditionnal people (E. Goldsmith;
I.Illich) principles.
-cost and work of construction (consensus decisions).
For an e-mail answer use espergala@wanadoo.fr specifying "for Bertrand" but I prefer fax which is direct at my home: tel/fax +33 5 53 47 37 65.
DNPA planning decision
We were disappointed but not surprised or disheartened when our planning application for 'change of use' was turned down by the National Park Authority on 3rd November.
The lively debate by the committee members at the meeting in September had focussed on environmental problems, issues of sustainability, the viability of this project as a sustainable one, the DNPA's obligations to encourage sustainable practices under Agenda 21, and so forth. But it was very disappointing that most of the members at the November meeting (following their site visit) largely ignored these issues.
However, two members (Nicholas Waterhouse and Greta Madigan) remained staunchly in favour of granting us permission. Mr Waterhouse proposed various conditions (such as temporary permission for 3 years; no more than 25 residents; no structure to be created outside the settlement area) which he believed would provide sufficient guarantees for the Park Authority and local residents of how the project proceeded. He said that what we are doing is not contrary to policy, but falls outside it. He continued by saying that we do not want to live in the woods but rather live with the woods, and therefore to require us to commute to the site would be like asking a husband to commute to his wife!
In our view, the decision shows how out of touch the planning system is with sustainable solutions to the pressing environmental problems and challenges we face in the 21st century. We shall be submitting an Appeal to the Planning Inspectorate and will be continuing the project in the meantime. We are grateful for this further period in which to prove the viability of the project and hopefully allay the concerns of those objecting to the application.
Thanks for all your letters of support. There will be details in the next newsletter on how you might be able to help in the appeal process.
Please contact Ben at ben@stewardwood.org or tel. 01647 440233 to add yourself to their mailing list.
On 16th November, after over six years, a low impact village near Shepton Mallet in Somerset was granted permanent planning permission for 'change of use' and 16 eco-dwellings. The residents of the 4-acre Kings Hill Community, who moved on in 1992, use solar power, treat their own waste, grow food and earn their livings from rural jobs in the local community.
Details tel. 01749 860660.
General info about low impact development tel.01460 249204.
August 2000
GEN Europe Assembly - 3-6 August 2000 - near Pamplona GREEN EURO FUTURES EXPOSITION IN THE PYRENEES Tony Gosling - tony@gaia.org
Lakabe was a tiny deserted Spanish village when it was squatted by Basque activists in the seventies. The now 35 or so happy Lakabe villagers have lots of kids and no money or private property. If they need cash to travel, say to England, they just take it and sign for it, everything is done on trust. Most of the communal cash comes from the twice-weekly village organic bread-making.
A coming together of the European Ecovillage movement in a squatted village in the foothills of the Pyrenees. An idyllic setting, hopefully to inspire us to put ideals into action.
Radical Anarchist territory Lakabe, but no violent Basque seperatists here. The villagers I spoke to were adamant about killing being wrong under any circumstances: "If we don't have right on our side we will never win the argument".
All-in-all a die-hard setting for the biennial get-together of Global Ecovillage Network (or GEN) Europe where we chose a new council to oversee the movement in Europe for the next two years. Two Italians, a Turk, a Pole and a Frenchman. Another important decision made was to make these European GEN convergances annual in future.
Initial accommodation was good and basic but wasn't to everyone's liking. A group who were in a dormitory on top of the cattle shed complained that the combination of cow bells, mooing and the powerful sweet smell made sleeping impossible. But overall the accommodation was homely and the vegetarian food outstanding and plentiful.
Each night, in Lakabe's restored church, we watched slide-shows from projects and networks around Europe, with some of the most heart-warming presentations coming from the modest Eastern Europeans. It was ironic to see, at one project, that an ambitious communal building had remained unfinished for years because of disharmony between the project members.
One night the slideshow was given with the slight distraction of opera music coming down from the roof of the church. One of Lakabe's residents lives in the church tower!
One thing became clear during these presentations. No-one really knows what an eco-village is! There are two main elements though it seems. The first is a degree of communalism i.e. Shared space and resources/money and the other is non-dependence on the outside world, providing eco-alternatives to energy, water, food, waste etc. all projects we saw had an emphasis on one or the other.
There was a chance to see videos from around Europe too. The short BBC programme about Tony Wrench's battle with the planners at Brithdir Mawr went down well.
There were some inspiring characters at the meeting, particularly beleaguered volunteers who seemed to be representing their country single-handed such as reps. from Austria, Portugal, Sweden and Finland. The Portuguese guy, for example, told us how recently, in Lisbon an abandoned car had been found slowing down traffic on a bridge in the evening rush-hour. The driver had decided the rat-race was too much for him and thrown himself off on the way home. If only he'd have seen that there ARE alternatives.
Thankfully the event was conducted in English with English spoken even at meal times on most tables. How inept I felt speaking little of any other language. When Alfredo, Italian Communist politician and wine-growing ecovillager, passed a few bottles of wine around Italian seemed to take over. How do the Italians manage to sing so loud without going over the top? They were certainly the life and soul of the gathering!
During the day we spent a lot of time comparing notes between the various national networks. The Germans, for example, were the only network that started spontaneously rather than being set up at the prompting of GEN. This led to a penetrating discussion organised by the Austrian guy on how to focus our efforts on being responsive to the needs of projects, raising the seemingly unaskable question 'Why should any project bother to join a national network?'
One of the main reason the German network started was because the ecovillages there were being labelled as sects in newspapers and by other mainstream media, with wild allegations circulating about bizarre activities that supposedly went on. The German network proved a useful counter to this and found there were lots of other things they needed to work together on as well.
In a workshop entitled 'What is sustainability' I presented Chapter 7's 15 criteria for sustainable rural land use. Some participants were a little shell-shocked by the strict ecological line of the Chapter 7 criteria wondering if they could ever completely disconnect from the electric grid for example but they were also impressed to hear the criteria had gone out to several months' national consultation. The Germans particularly welcomed this approach having come up against similar countryside planning barriers to those encountered in the UK.
The weather was sunny for the most part. We made several trips down the valley for plunges into the broad Irati river. We found a roaring waterfall that we could sit in, cushioned by reeds, as the fresh Pyreneean water gave us a gentle pummelling.
Strangely for the host nation, the Spanish ecovillage movement was almost entirely absent over the four days. A large part of the programme was taken up with 'New-Age' singing and circle-dancing. Something I didn't want to take part in and was accused from the top of being 'anti-social'. One of the Lakabe residents explained they didn't see GEN as the best forum to meet like-minded people. Was this why? Force-fed spirituality is, for me, a problem with GEN. Making spiritual assumptions about participants can be a big turn-off. Not all ecovillagers are nature-worshippers! Several of us heretics agreed, in hushed tones, that spirituality was up to the individual and missing the point at such a meeting.
For a 'spiritually conscious' gathering there were some worrying blind-spots. A good point was raised after the Turkish slide show by a German anti-militarist campaigner and eco-dweller: 'Wasn't it hypocrisy to celebrate that one straw-bale building had been erected in Turkey when hundreds of Kurdish eco-villages and villagers have been annihilated by the Turkish army in Northern Iraq?' The questioner was left with the distinct feeling that uncomfortable questions like this had no place at a GEN gathering. Maybe in the future there can be a session where wider issues like this are on the table. There is something hollow about a meeting where people can't speak their minds for fear of offending people.
Lakabe has proved with trust and the right people difficulties managing shared space and shared resources can be overcome. It seemed to be largely due to the simple genuineness of the village's people, also drawing on the Basques' idealistic and pragmatic political tradition.
An eco-living visionary blitz and an incredibly empowering few days. I thoroughly recommend anyone interested in the wider ecovillage movement to go to next year's gathering, which'll probably be in Poland.
If we can take the best ideas from other parts of Europe and use them here in the UK we may have a sorted social movement on our hands.
INTERNET LINKS:
GEN Europe
http://www.gen-europe.org
EVN-UK
http://www.ecovillages.org/uk/network
Chapter 7
http://www.oneworld.org/tlio/chapter7
August 2000.
Ecovillage network UK is now working much more closely with Low Impact News,
a bi-monthly publication based at Middlewood near Lancaster. The EVNUK newsletter
is no more but L.I.N. is the kind of publication we believe will appeal to
the widest readership written by Low Impact dwellers for Low Impact Dwellers.
LIN contains articles about constructing your own dwellings, where to buy
cheap solar panels and other alternative energy kit and where to get hold
of cheap land! The emphasis is on accessibility for all to eco-living,
particularly the not-so-well-off urban population.
9 July 2000
Dear Friends
Blagdon Cross Plant Research and Demonstration Gardens - Near Holsworthy, Devon. 1 temporary dwelling, visitors centre. 5 camping pitches, a 4 acre lake, a car park and a new access and ancillary works wholly in connection with Sustainable Land Use.
YES! Good news, at last we have 'won approval' to get on with our work developing our new site. It has been a long and tedious struggle to acquire planning permission for Blagdon Cross Plant Research and Demonstration Gardens and this daunting task has at times been seriously detrimental to our existence. It has been a real learning experience in the face of extreme adversity.
At the beginning of May we attended a Public Inquiry by way of Appeal against the decision of Torridge District Council Planning Department who refused our application on 2 occasions. It was like a court case and the council did everything in their 'power' to make us look inept. As it was the council, particularly their so called 'expert witness', was made to look somewhat less than an expert.
The Planning Inspector was really genuinely interested in our work and remained fair and impartial the whole time. Having carefully read and re-read his decision notice it is fair to conclude that we did very poorly at proving agricultural functional and financial tests in order to gain the temporary residence we were seeking. Alas we are very pleased to say that this result is a very positive break through for low impact, sustainable projects with educational and visitor aspects. We won permission on the grounds of special needs and other material considerations - the sustainability, educational and visitor elements playing a very important part in the result.
So what now. Its such a relief - the huge workload related to the planning process suddenly over. We have expended so much - time, energy and resources on this. Now we have to face the music. We have a huge backlog of seriously neglected paper and land based work to catch up on and the need and desire to move and get on with developing Blagdon is overwhelming.
We are over tired and over-stretched having been running on overdrive so long our reserves long since drained away. However this is such an exciting time for us (it is just difficult to know how to progress from here) but we will find the will to sort it all out.
Things are altogether looking up for us. We've got permission at last, we are in the process of Soil Assoiciation Organic conversion, and we have broken through into mainstream horticulture this year with our stand at the BBC/RHS Gardeners World Live Exhibition. Never before have I seen so many people starving for information and finding it available to them through PFAF.
Anyway we have plans and hopes for major work parties and are seeking willing volunteers to help us through. We would love to hear from anyone interested in helping making the PFAF vision a reality - we need your energy and enthusiasm to make this happen. As for what type of work you may be involved in the list is seemingly endless and there should be something for everyone, so rather than me try to list it here why not phone for a chat and see if you would like to get involved.
We are also planning to run various workshops in the not too distant future, these will include Woodland Gardening, Edible and Useful Plant Propagation, Green Woodworking, and Vegan Soap Making. Full details are not arranged as yet and we would love to receive feedback from anyone that may be interested in attending any of these.
We'd love to hear from you, please.
Hope, Health and Harmony
"pfaf" pfaf@LineOne.net
Elaine
A recent article in the Permaculture magazine
(Link to their website) reported
that retrospective planning permission had been granted for the dome structure.
See previous article
Press Release
CONTACT: B. Hill, Academic Director; Tel: 0131-624 1974 (9-5 M-F), mobile 0410894102, email brendan@clan.com
* * * A new college for the third Millennium * * *
The first new UK college of the third Millennium has been established with the opening to students of the Centre for Human Ecology (CHE), a specialist in education for sustainable development.
CHE, based in Edinburgh, Scotland has gained accreditation as an institute of higher education from the Open University Validation Service (OUVS). Its first course is a postgraduate Masters degree in Human Ecology.
The course, a genuinely unique mixture of environmental sciences, social sciences and change agent skills has attracted 22 students from backgrounds as diverse as computer programming, drama, nature conservation, financial services and the merchant navy. Students, ranging from age 25 to their 60's, come from north America, eastern Europe and Africa, as well as Scotland and the UK.
In addition to the MSc/ Diploma/ Certificate programme in Human Ecology the Centre has programmes addressing sustainability education in business, empowerment of disadvantaged communities, and capacity building among environmental organisations, and holds a popular annual public lecture series.
The Centre is an independent institution founded in 1972, employing 10 staff. In addition to the academic programme, it runs major projects supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature, the European Social Fund, the Rowntree Trust and a variety of other charitable bodies.
THE LAND IS OURS has opened a new office to campaign for a more equitable and sustainable planning system. This new initiative takes its name from Chapter 7 of Agenda 21 "Promoting Sustainable Human Settlement" whose stated objective is "to provide access to land for all households . . . through environmentally sound planning"
There is one acre of land for every person in Britain. But, in order to protect the countryside, the planning system dictates that most of this land cannot be built upon. This artificial scarcity of building land creates artificially high prices. Land with planning permission is worth about 100 times as much as land reserved for agriculture or forestry.
Yet, almost unbelievably the issue of land values is not regarded as a planning matter. There is not one mention in any of the government's Planning Policy Guidances of the effect that planning policies may have upon land prices. The refusal to discuss this basic factor cascades down through regional, structure and development plans.
In other words, policies which have a decisive effect upon land prices and people's access to land are drawn up and accepted without any public discussion about what this effect will be.
The result is an unseemly and ill-regulated scramble for land, where:
Chapter 7 will campaign by publishing reports and newsletters; responding to Government consultation papers; liaising with the media; lobbying decision-makers and local councils; providing a planning consultancy service for low impact developments; and publicising and supporting appropriate direct action.
Our first major project is the publication of the report Defining Rural Sustainability: 15 Criteria for Sustainable Developments in the Countryside together with Three Model Policies for Local Plans. A subsequent project will be a briefing pack explaining how members of the public can influence the development plan process in their area.
If you would like to be placed on the Chapter 7 mailing list, receive additional information about relevant events and campaigns taking place in your region, including at least three newsletters year write to the following address enclosing your name, address, telephone/fax number, email address and £5 (waged) or £3(unwaged) These details will not be handed on to other organizations. Send us news about developments in your area. Chapter 7 will be happy to network and publicise information for you.Chapter 7, (co ordinator Simon Fairlie),
Telephone/Fax: (Thursdays and Fridays) 01935 472396
Telephone: (rest of week) 01935 881975
Planning gone mad! - An exemplary Ecovillage which was recently discovered in Pembrokeshire National Park... is now under threat of demolition
A self-sufficient hillside community comes out fighting for it's way of life, reports Simon de Bruxelles
There was nothing on any map, so, when a pilot caught a glimpse of something mysterious concealed on a Welsh hillside, he decided to take a closer look. What he found astonished him. Hidden in the middle of a national park was a secret village of half a dozen buildings clustered around a dome-like structure erected on stilts. The village was entirely self-sufficient, generating it's own electricity, growing it's own food, using solar panels for heating and taking water from local streams. For four years the tiny community had entirely escaped the authorities' attention. But now the 22 residents of the "eco-village" face the prospect of their outbuildings and workshops being bulldozed because they were built without planning permission. The village was first spotted by a pilot surveying the Pembrokeshire National Park who caught a glimpse of sunlight reflecting off a solar panel. When planning officials investigated they found villagers self-sufficient among buildings made from turf and wood behind a screen of trees and shrubs well off the beaten track.
The villagers said yesterday that they would fight the decision to demolish the community they had spent years creating. Liz Terry, 42, said "I don't feel they understand what we are trying to do. If we have lived here for years without being noticed, then what harm can we be doing? It's a very experimental project in it's early stages and I think we needed to show them what we are trying to achieve. We are aiming to address the problem of rural depopulation by taking care of the land and ensuring that people can live in a sustainable way. There are larger issues at stake here than planning." The villagers are appealing against the ruling by the Pembrokeshire National Park Authority and the issue is likely to go before a public enquiry.
The six buildings facing demolition include the dome, where the members of the community meet and work, a roundhouse with a turf roof, a wooden marquee, a wood store and workshop. They have all been constructed of timber from nearby woods. A small lake, which the commune members dug, will also have to be filled in. The 12 adults and 10 children in the community are mainly vegetarian and live off the land growing all their own vegetables. Power comes from the solar panels set in the roofs of the buildings, a wind generator and a water turbine using the waters of a small stream. It generates enough power for heating, lighting and even running the community's one computer. Villagers draw water from the stream and use wood from a nearby copse to fuel their fires.
The village, called Brithdir Mawr, was set up by an architectural historian, Julian Orbach, 45, and his wife, Emma, in the foothills of Mount Carningli, near Newport, Pembrokeshire, 4 years ago. They renovated a farmhouse and moved into it with their children Martha, now 16, Ruben, 14, and Agnes, 11. They converted out-buildings into a hostel that is now used by backpackers. Other income for the community comes from members running a range of courses in subjects such as straw bale building, dry stone walling, singing, music and voice training. Mrs Orbach said, "We are very disappointed that the National Park authority has not supported out project. We are unhappy they have decided to take such action without even bothering to view the site first. We will be appealing against the enforcement and putting in retrospective planning applications even though we have been told these will not be accepted."
Support for the village commune has come from Brian Wood, of the West Wales Energy Centre, who said the residents' efforts were laudable and that low impact communities and sustainable development should be encouraged wherever possible. The chairman of the national park development control committee, David Edwards, said, "However much we sympathise with the aims of the project, we have to apply planning laws equally and fairly to all. It is very unfortunate that these people did not come and talk to us first.
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There is also an independent hostel there, costing £4 a night. (or work in exchange for board can often be negotiated):
Tony Wrench
Brithdir Mawr,
Cilgwyn Rd,
Trefdraeth,
Pembrokeshire,
SA42 OQJ;
Tel: 01239 820164.
Its not suprising so many ordinary people are cynical when it comes to caring for the environment. There are a bewildering array of ‘correct’ ways to behave, from recycling milk bottle tops, to swapping the car for a bike. Unfortunately it's always the most environmentally damaging items, such as the central heating boiler and the car that we are most reluctant to part with. In today's high-pressure world we're too busy to pass the time of day, so how on earth will we find time to take those boxes of junk up to the recycling bank, specially now we've got rid of the Volvo. We'll just have to leave them out for the dustman. The problem is that almost all the changes on offer are just partial solutions.
All these little day-to-day changes do make a difference, but they are partial at best and when they're costing us time and money we haven't got we've the best excuse in the world to give them up... and don't be too suprised if you feel like you're banging your head against a brick wall... your recycling is only treating the symptoms not addressing the cause.
A few alternatives, such as low-energy light bulbs, do reflect their lower environmental impact in a lower overall cost, but these are the exception. Modern society is economically hooked on consumption and so much of our lives: watching TV; days out; regular long-distance travel to work etc., necessitates such high consumption that there's only one way to really make a dent in the unsustainable living patterns we've descended into. That's by changing entirely the way we live.
Persuading the unemployed to take unskilled low-paid work is not an answer, it just puts off the problem. There is a growing constituency of people
We're all agreed that the current lifestyle, particularly here in Britain, is unsustainable. Not only are we depleting world resources at a rate which makes us a seriously ecologically destructive nation but our society is not socially sustainable either.
People, young and old, are becoming less and less able to fulfill their life ambitions, quality jobs are becoming increasingly hard to come by. The work is there alright, but because employers can pick and choose, hire and fire more easily today, the work on offer is nowhere near as secure. Added to that is the seeming inability of wages, for ordinary people, to keep up with the rising cost of living.
Indeed the wage economy can even tempt otherwise socially responsible individuals into ditching those values when they are given an opportunity for promotion that requires more environmental or social expoloitation.
As the screws tighten in the employment market, as globalisation begins to pinch and we feel increasing competition from countries where workers are unashamedly exploited, individuals who are deeply dissatisfied with their lot will be looking for a way out, an alternative lifestyle which will give them more autonomy than they will be offered in the choice between low-waged insecure employment and reliance on minimal state benefits.
Building on the trailblazing work of inspired people articulating the aspirations of the age
Globalisation is upon us."There is no alternative," or so the mainstream press would have us believe. But, as we know, there are increasing numbers of people who are not just talking about the dangers of the global economy and importance of the local, they are doing somthing about it.
Ecological living projects come in all shapes and sizes, urban and rural, the philosophies behind them are refreshingly diverse but they have one thing in common, they are about showing that there IS an alternative to wage based lifestyles and global competition.