South Hams Eco-Community Sets UK Planning Precedent

A new planning precedence means the South Hams area will host a trial eco community.

The eco community at Allaleigh, near Totnes, won a 3 year temporary planning permission for their 42-acre site last month.

The land is managed for the benefit of bio-diversity and wildlife whilst providing the community with food, water, energy, shelter, creativity, transport and waste management.

The residents live in yurts, benders or timber-framed buildings, many with solar cells and all with their own vegetable patches.

Landmatters Co-Operative Ltd acquired Allaleigh in May 2003. Their retrospective application for the change of use of the land from agriculture to a permaculture holding was submitted to the District Council in February 2006.

Permaculture is defined as a combination of “permanent agriculture” and “permanent culture”, integrating agriculture, forestry, education and ancillary rural enterprises, with temporary low impact residential structures.

The application was turned down and an enforcement notice was served requiring them to cease residential use of the land and to remove all associated structures. They appealed against these decisions and there was a public inquiry in July.

The Inspector at the inquiry explicitly endorsed the permaculture aspect of the project when he granted the 3 year temporary permission which set a UK planning precedent.

The decision recognises a further important benchmark in low-impact development in the countryside, following the example of communities such as Kings Hill and Tinkers Bubble in Somerset and Fivepenny Farm in West Dorset.

But before you run out to buy your parcel of rural land and a yurt, not all Landmatters’ arguments were accepted.

For those who believe in protecting the countryside from such communities, the Inspector clearly stated that the development conflicts with established policies designed to constrain residential expansion in the countryside. The site’s additional activity had a discernible impact on the character of the area and the remote location meant that residents needed a greater dependence on non-sustainable modes of travel.

The Inspector leant his support to this project in the weight that he gave the potential benefits and that those benefits were sufficient to outweigh the harm.

The Inspector stated: "Landmatters have already achieved low levels of energy consumption, implemented wide-ranging recycling initiatives and established an ecological footprint per household far smaller than the regional average".

Indeed, the Inspector may hint at similar decisions by adding “…the direction of travel of emerging national policy towards ever more sustainable approaches to development and the need to address the problem of climate change is readily apparent".

He added: "In such a context, I find there to be considerable ecological, educational and cultural benefits in further exploring permaculture." He concluded: "the advancement of permaculture and sustainable ways of living facilitated by this project has sufficient potential value to outweigh the limited harm to other interests".

The Inspector believed the project fulfilled an experimental role in developing, practising, understanding and teaching sustainable methods of agriculture and ways of living. He considered whether the advancement of permaculture should be an important planning objective and did not accept that “the absence of specific reference to permaculture in current planning guidance signifies its unimportance”.

So, the project will be trialled and monitored over the next 3 years, with a view to carrying out a further detailed assessment of the continuing worth of the experiment. At the end of the 3 years the planning permission will expire if it is seen to lack sufficient credibility or value.
Now all I need to do is to think of an experiment that I can carry out that will progress the aims of sustainable living while living in the glorious West Country…..

Published 05/10/2007.