They might look like hobbits' dwellings, but low-impact developments = could=20 offer a solution to the housing crisis. Patrick Barkham = reports
Guardian
Nearly 10=20 years ago, Tony Wrench stretched a rubber pond lining over a circle of = timber=20 posts and made himself a round home. By a field full of meadowsweet in a = peaceful Welsh valley, Wrench and his partner, Jane Faith, live as = unobtrusively=20 as humanly possible. Were it not for a lazy trail of wood smoke, you = could walk=20 past the Roundhouse and not realise it was there.And, as luck would have it, the 30ft diameter hobbit-style home has = found=20 itself in the midst of a radical experiment: last year Pembrokeshire = county=20 council and the Pembrokeshire Coast national park authority agreed to = grant=20 planning permission for low-impact developments (LIDs) in the council = area - and=20 even in the national park - if they met stringent criteria. It is an = unusual=20 policy that could encourage other planning authorities across Britain to = rethink=20 sustainable development: after all, these homes are affordable, = carbon-neutral=20 and can be built on green fields without environmental degradation.
But the pioneers of zero-carbon living have long been derided as = hippies and=20 denied legitimacy by the planning system, from the celebrated Tinker's = Bubble in=20 Somerset to Steward Wood in Devon. Wrench is typical, forced to fight = his=20 eviction from the moment council officers spotted the glint of his = bus-window=20 skylight during an aerial inspection. "An unsightly and incongruous = appearance,"=20 sniffed the first inspector to clap eyes on the Roundhouse. And to = Wrench's=20 dismay, in the new policy's first test, his retrospective application = for the=20 Roundhouse was rejected last week.
Grapes are trained over the eaves of the green roof of his home, = built on=20 neglected farmland owned by a friend at Brithdir Mawr. Freshly dug = potatoes sit=20 in a bucket by the door and, after nearly 10 years, the bracken still = sprouts=20 through the kitchen's earth floor every spring. Three small solar panels = and a=20 tiny wind turbine provide power. Sometimes Wrench has to choose between = his=20 laptop or a lightbulb, but it is not a life of deprivation.
Inside is a cosy jumble of books and ornaments, sheepskins and a = wood-burning=20 stove. Beneath their raised bed is a wine cellar, well stocked with = Wrench's=20 sweet raspberry wine. The stove heats hot water for baths. They manage = without a=20 fridge or a washing machine. And the roundness is pleasing. "Once you = live in=20 round, corners seem a bit weird," says Faith.
A reedbed soaks up their grey water - the water left over after = washing up,=20 bathing and laundry - and a double-sided compost toilet is situated 20 = yards=20 from the house. Wrench, who carves wooden bowls for a living, finds = adding the=20 leftover wood shavings to the mix makes perfect compost. "Every year we = get nine=20 wheelbarrows of really good compost. It's completely odour-free - the=20 raspberries love it," he says. "When you're shitting it's a creative = cycle,=20 rather than it going out to sea and becoming someone else's problem."
The authorities, however, see Wrench as a problem. Under the new = criteria, he=20 had to prove he could meet 75% of his needs - energy, food etc - from = his=20 smallholding; the planners decided there weren't enough trees to support = him.=20 The Roundhouse was also rejected on environmental grounds; Wrench = disputes the=20 charge that he has "improved" the grassland (in planning terms = "unimproved" is=20 better) and is adamant that biodiversity has flourished under his watch. = His=20 son, a botanist, has logged 73 species in his meadow.
Wrench will appeal but is aggrieved by the apparent false dawn of=20 Pembrokeshire's LID planning regime. "They've set the criteria so they = can say=20 no to virtually anything," he says. "Are we serious about = sustainability, or are=20 we more serious about value judgments about what looks pretty or not in = a=20 national park?"
Council planners introduced the low-impact policy after lengthy = consultation=20 - and some reluctance from the national park - when they realised they = had no=20 way of dealing with alternative dwellings like the Roundhouse. Peter = Sedgwick,=20 the council's forward planning officer, says the criteria had to be = tough but=20 are not impossible to meet: "Planning guidance is against development in = open=20 countryside. This is an exceptional policy that only allows for it when = the=20 development can be seen as not just sustainable but positively = contributing to=20 things like biodiversity."
Could other planning authorities follow Pembrokeshire? Sedgwick and = Martina=20 Dunne of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park believe LIDs will remain a = "marginal"=20 provision. Dunne says planners' focus must be on affordable housing. = This is=20 exactly what the LID builders claim to be (Wrench's house cost =A35,000) = but the=20 planners don't recognise it. "You couldn't call it affordable housing as = far as=20 the majority of people are concerned," says Dunne. "In a way, the ethos = of=20 low-impact developments - sustainability and sustainable design - should = be=20 mainstream. But if you ask people in the street, 'Do you want to live = that=20 way?', 95% of them say no."
However, the Lammas cooperative, with its slick website, hopes to = change the=20 perception of LIDs as hippy dwellings. The brainchild of carpenter Paul = Wimbush,=20 the project aims to build nine smallholdings near the village of Glandwr = in=20 Pembrokeshire (but not in the national park), and it will be the next = test of=20 Pembrokeshire's LID policy this autumn.
Wimbush has invested =A350,000 in the planning stage, in order to = make sure=20 that Lamas is a model low-impact community. This has involved numerous = studies=20 and professionally drawn "earth-sheltered" eco-homes made from timber = and=20 cob-and-straw bales, with plots designed in detail, right down to the = type of=20 plum tree in the orchard. "We want it to be mainstream," says Wimbush, = 35, who=20 lives near Swansea in a low-impact house with his wife, Hoppi, and three = children. "We want normal people to come round and say, 'I could live = like that=20 - they've got TVs and computers, and they aren't toiling in the mud.'"
Lammas won't need electricity or water from the grid, as it will get = its=20 power from a water turbine already on site, part of an old farm the = cooperative=20 has agreed to buy at agricultural rates if it gets planning approval. = The=20 project is not, however, about opting out of society. Residents will pay = council=20 tax and have mortgages. "We are deliberately taking a much more = integrated=20 approach," he says. If approved, Lammas is determined to contribute to = the local=20 community: working with farmers' markets and collecting compost from = ordinary=20 villagers.
So far, though, the project has met with local suspicion. Much of the = opposition may be nimbyism, some could be cultural (of the nine families = planning to take plots, only one is Welsh-speaking local) but a bit may = also be=20 indignation. Why should they get preferential planning treatment?
"Why should we buy land at =A32,000 an acre whereas Wimpey has to pay = =A32m?"=20 says Wimbush. "Because we are meeting such stringent criteria and we = are, as the=20 planning phrasing goes, being 'exemplars of sustainability'."
Ahead of a decision in October, Wimbush diplomatically says that the = council=20 "has been really open-minded and forward-thinking. It potentially sets = up the=20 county as a model for sustainability."
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