Landmark Low-impact Roundhouse Ordered To Be Demolished
Turf | 28.02.2004 16:45 | Culture | Ecology | Free Spaces
The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority has upheld its decision to insist that the well known eco-roundhouse in the Brithdir Mawr community be demolished. The Park supposedly actively seeks to promote sustainability, which makes the decision even more hypocritical. The Roundhouse actively embodies all of these sustainability principles. At the same time as the National Park has announced £750,000 over three years for its Sustainable Development Fund ‘aimed at promoting innovative, sustainable projects’, while it has also agreed permission for a huge, fundamentally unsustainable holiday park, Bluestone Park, against the recommendation of its officers concerned about the environmental impact. The £45m holiday park will be a 500-acre leisure and sports village, complete with 340 log cabins which will be imported from Estonia. The authority's development control committee again voted in favour of the development, planned for land near Narbeth, against its own officers' recommendation (see reports).
The Roundhouse
The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority has upheld its decision to insist that the eco-roundhouse in the Brithdir Mawr community be demolished. The Park supposedly actively seeks to promote sustainability, which makes the decision even more hypocritical. The Roundhouse actively embodies all of these sustainability principles.
At the same time as the National Park has announced £750,000 over three years for its Sustainable Development Fund ‘aimed at promoting innovative, sustainable projects’, it has also just agreed permission for a huge, fundamentally unsustainable holiday park, Bluestone Park (see below for more info. If you’re looking for the info on the Park’s website, you’ll need to click on the Latest News link).
But no such luck for the roundhouse. Built by Tony Wrench and Jane Faith in 1997, the roundhouse’s existence was discovered in 1999, apparently by a ‘spotter plane’ flying over what the mainstream press dubbed the ‘Lost Tribe’, the Brithdir Mawr community farm. Since then, the local authorities, the Park and planners have been fighting to have the house removed, as it infringes upon planning regulations.
Despite years of battling to save the house, they must now take it down or face the bulldozers (for which they will have to pay costs). There will be a weeklong ‘unbuilding’ camp in April, for those who want to help take down this building with love and respect instead of brute force. There is still an ongoing campaign to support the roundhouse – show your support here too.
The Roundhouse, home to Tony and Jane, is built almost entirely from materials sourced at the farm site. Made from pole-timber coppiced from their own woodland, cob, straw, and recycled windows, it relies on renewable energy in the form of solar-water heating (old radiators), photovoltaic panels to generate electricity, and has a turf roof which provides not only insulation, but a natural habitat for wildlife and for growing fruits. The roof has a fairly traded natural rubber damp-proof membrane from a sustainable source. The whole building is nestled into a hillside and blends in perfectly with its surroundings. Tony and Jane argue that this is not only where they live, but it is an essential part of their livelihoods, as they both make their living from working on the farm, hence their request that the roundhouse be designated by planners as an agricultural worker's cottage.
Ironically, if the roundhouse had been discovered 4 years after it was built (not 18 months) they would have the right to keep it. Tony was not even allowed to present his case to the planning committee. Apparently, only one member of that committee had even visited the site (he abstained from voting for the planning refusal at the time, and now is no longer allowed to vote as he has an ’interest’ in the roundhouse).
Chapter 7, a UK organisation which campaigns to provide access to land for all households through environmentally sound planning, has developed a set of 15 criteria for sustainable rural planning, all of which the roundhouse meets. Read their Winter 2003 news online, which has various articles about the issue, including Catherine Milner’s response to Chapter 7’s article on Tony and Jane’s predicament.
The Bluestone paradox
As reported on the Diggers and Dreamers website
‘The NPA [National Parks Authority] has recently given permission - against the recommendation of its officers and concern about the environmental impact - for the £45m Bluestone holiday park - a 500-acre leisure and sports village, complete with 340 log cabins which will be imported from Estonia. The authority's development control committee again voted in favour of the development, planned for land near Narbeth, against its own officers' recommendation.’
You can read more about the reasons for planning refusal (which were ignored) here.
Some links
For more information on sustainable housing issues and projects see the links below:
That Roundhouse
http://www.thatroundhouse.info/
http://website.lineone.net/~tonywrench/03.htm
Go on – have a go! ‘Building a low impact roundhouse’ by Tony Wrench
(and other permaculture books) – available from:
http://www.permaculture.co.uk/erc/erc2.html
Brithdir Mawr Community website
http://www.brithdirmawr.com/
The Hockerton Housing Project website
http://www.hockerton.demon.co.uk/links/
BedZed – Zero Emission housing development in Beddington
http://www.bedzed.org.uk/
Diggers and Dreamers
http://www.diggersanddreamers.org.uk
The Land is Ours – Chapter 7
http://www.thelandisours.org/chapter7/whorwe.html
The Centre for Alternative Technology
http://www.cat.org.uk
At the same time as the National Park has announced £750,000 over three years for its Sustainable Development Fund ‘aimed at promoting innovative, sustainable projects’, it has also just agreed permission for a huge, fundamentally unsustainable holiday park, Bluestone Park (see below for more info. If you’re looking for the info on the Park’s website, you’ll need to click on the Latest News link).
But no such luck for the roundhouse. Built by Tony Wrench and Jane Faith in 1997, the roundhouse’s existence was discovered in 1999, apparently by a ‘spotter plane’ flying over what the mainstream press dubbed the ‘Lost Tribe’, the Brithdir Mawr community farm. Since then, the local authorities, the Park and planners have been fighting to have the house removed, as it infringes upon planning regulations.
Despite years of battling to save the house, they must now take it down or face the bulldozers (for which they will have to pay costs). There will be a weeklong ‘unbuilding’ camp in April, for those who want to help take down this building with love and respect instead of brute force. There is still an ongoing campaign to support the roundhouse – show your support here too.
The Roundhouse, home to Tony and Jane, is built almost entirely from materials sourced at the farm site. Made from pole-timber coppiced from their own woodland, cob, straw, and recycled windows, it relies on renewable energy in the form of solar-water heating (old radiators), photovoltaic panels to generate electricity, and has a turf roof which provides not only insulation, but a natural habitat for wildlife and for growing fruits. The roof has a fairly traded natural rubber damp-proof membrane from a sustainable source. The whole building is nestled into a hillside and blends in perfectly with its surroundings. Tony and Jane argue that this is not only where they live, but it is an essential part of their livelihoods, as they both make their living from working on the farm, hence their request that the roundhouse be designated by planners as an agricultural worker's cottage.
Ironically, if the roundhouse had been discovered 4 years after it was built (not 18 months) they would have the right to keep it. Tony was not even allowed to present his case to the planning committee. Apparently, only one member of that committee had even visited the site (he abstained from voting for the planning refusal at the time, and now is no longer allowed to vote as he has an ’interest’ in the roundhouse).
Chapter 7, a UK organisation which campaigns to provide access to land for all households through environmentally sound planning, has developed a set of 15 criteria for sustainable rural planning, all of which the roundhouse meets. Read their Winter 2003 news online, which has various articles about the issue, including Catherine Milner’s response to Chapter 7’s article on Tony and Jane’s predicament.
The Bluestone paradox
As reported on the Diggers and Dreamers website
‘The NPA [National Parks Authority] has recently given permission - against the recommendation of its officers and concern about the environmental impact - for the £45m Bluestone holiday park - a 500-acre leisure and sports village, complete with 340 log cabins which will be imported from Estonia. The authority's development control committee again voted in favour of the development, planned for land near Narbeth, against its own officers' recommendation.’
You can read more about the reasons for planning refusal (which were ignored) here.
Some links
For more information on sustainable housing issues and projects see the links below:
That Roundhouse
http://www.thatroundhouse.info/
http://website.lineone.net/~tonywrench/03.htm
Go on – have a go! ‘Building a low impact roundhouse’ by Tony Wrench
(and other permaculture books) – available from:
http://www.permaculture.co.uk/erc/erc2.html
Brithdir Mawr Community website
http://www.brithdirmawr.com/
The Hockerton Housing Project website
http://www.hockerton.demon.co.uk/links/
BedZed – Zero Emission housing development in Beddington
http://www.bedzed.org.uk/
Diggers and Dreamers
http://www.diggersanddreamers.org.uk
The Land is Ours – Chapter 7
http://www.thelandisours.org/chapter7/whorwe.html
The Centre for Alternative Technology
http://www.cat.org.uk
Turf
Comments
Hide the following 11 comments
Additional weblinks
24.02.2004 11:50
Chapter 7
Letter from Catherine Milner, 2002
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park
Other news stories
Turf (again...)
Sorry state of affairs!
24.02.2004 12:04
Pixie
Build over national parks, yes...
24.02.2004 12:31
Allowing 'sustainable' building in national parks would be a license for developers to fill them up with 'sustainable' bungalow parks. Followed by eco-village developments, sustainable thatched shopping malls, and green landscaped eco-motorways.
Don't think these plans don't exist - there is even a lobby for green nuclear power stations.
>
all too easy...
24.02.2004 13:07
"oooh-aaah, what a lovely house, dreadful bureaucrats again"
but if we want respect as rational beings we need to address the underlying principle which operates here.
We need to understand the huge implications of government relaxing the building/planning regulations set up to enforce minimum standards for human dwellings.
We may wish to propose new special regulations to apply in very special situations, but we must not, like little children, blindly emote without bothering to understand.
This roundhouse almost certainly fails to meet standards with regard to provision of flush toilet and washing facilities, and with regard to provision of light and air.
If there was a general relaxation of the minimum standards we would open the door to huge abuses and huge exploitation of the poor, the asylum seekers, the illegal immigrants.
Soon these people would be living in shacks, in caves, building shanty towns, and creating a whole underclass of children suffering ill-health and everything which goes with such living.
Not only that, we would quickly have exploitative landlords renting out the most abominable homes to the vulnerable and desperate.
I too yearn (theoretically) for the option to return to a pre-industrial lifestyle. But this romantic vision is primarily a middle-class ambition. Allowing it has real dangers for the truly vulnerable.
Nevertheless I really would like to see special provisions to allow this sort of living. I would propose that we need a special set of rules to limit such exemptions to very special situations, in order to protect the vulnerable from their inappropriate extension.
Possible suggestions :
1. To be occupied by owners only - rental forbidden
2. Occupiers life-style to meet criteria connected with green-environmental issues/experiments and alternative living.
3. Restriction on nature of employment.
4. Prior qualification of say three years involvement in alternative living.
5. Maybe need to be part of some registered alternative community, perhaps of a non-commercial nature (charity status?)
Yes, I know. Repels me too. More rules. More state interference. Horrible.
But can you see why ?
Rational thought and prediction of likely outcomes forces us into it.
Its to protect the vulnerable from creeping exploitation.
If you want to leap to the attack, then please explain why this protection is unnecessary.
freddie
'National park'
24.02.2004 22:45
- yes true but to the live like the above you have to 'hide away' in remote places. After watching a documentary about there community I think what the have done is great. To live in harmony with the earth to me is the ultimate goal for all humanity, until we learn to do this we'll never learn to live with each other.
Using ideas like 'ecomotorway' in comparision to this tiny eco dwelling is a ridiculous statement, it isnt exacly centre parks is it? maybe they should turn their attention to the other national parks that are about to be quarried before they hold both judge and jury for a few people who are trying to live alternative life in a mutual caring and sharing community.
oiyoi
Because...
25.02.2004 10:29
Mercury Kev
you have a lot to learn kev
25.02.2004 13:57
Then i'll advertise them to the homeless, asylum seekers, illegal immigrants for an exorbitant rent and fill each with adults and kids. Or maybe I'll sell them to them for £10000 each on a private mortgage.
When anyone questions them they'll express the most passionate enthusiasm for living in filth without running water, and crapping in the bushes. I'll make sure of that. They'll be well briefed, and anyone who steps out of line will quickly be homeless, or worse - dobbed in to the authorities.
freddie
freddie
27.02.2004 17:49
- then that'd make you a bit of a wanker right?
I can see the immigrants angle you're on about here but it's not really the relevant one. It's the utter hyprocrisy going on re the park and the holiday resort, and the long running legal battle to keep the roundhouse. Sure the amazing people who built it are prepared to take it down - they've always maintained that if they lose then they would do so. But it is a shame that this particular site and roundhouse which has become a famous example of utterly low impact building / lifestyle has to be removed. It has inspired many people in the eco-construction industry and been written about widely - as such i for one think it should have been allowed to stay simply for these reasons.
Anyway. LAND. Now that's another issue. Who owns most of this country? Well it's impossible for people to actualy find out. And anyway they got it mostly through dodgy historical deeds.
Get off my land!? Fuck You!
albion rising
from this weeks schnews
02.03.2004 09:23
The roundhouse, a dwelling that has served as an example of low-impact housing for the last seven years, has lost its five-year struggle to remain in the Welsh countryside. The house’s designer, Tony Wrench, has been battling the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park (PCNP) authority for the right to stay in the wood, mud, and straw eco-home he built since its discovery in 1999 by a park survey plane.
Ever since the home was discovered, park officials have been gagging to demolish the roundhouse. Built on land owned by Brithdir Mawr, a community based on environmental sustainability, the house unfortunately did not have planning permission. Because of this, and also due to arch-villain Ms. Cathy Milner, a big shot with the PCNP and avowed enemy of the roundhouse, the PCNP has ruthlessly sought, and finally won, a demolition order. Tired from his battles with the PCNP and threatened with legal action if the house is not destroyed, Wrench has bowed out.
For her part, Ms Milner said turning a blind eye to Mr Wrench’s house would just encourage more hippies to live sustainably. “Before long you won’t have any countryside left because these people will be building these things all over the place.” Bearing in mind that she works for the same planning authority that has agreed the building of a multi-million pound 500-acre leisure and sports village in the same National park where the roundhouse is, one would hope that the likes of Ms Milner will soon get the sack. If not, before long you won’t have any countryside left because these people will keep building more leisure and sports villages all over the place!
schnewsie
i don't see why...
03.03.2004 13:28
Without opening things up to the rogue landlords (like Nicholas van Hoogstraten) of this world.
What we need is a pressure group formed from all the interested organisations, to draft suggested regulations, and then exert pressure for their adoption. And perhaps to offer to voluntarily take some of the burden of monitoring and enforcement.
You cannot seriously suggest that the answer is for officials to "turn a blind eye". That opens the door to corruption, blackmail, bullying and victimisation. Our only protection from officialdom is when they must obey the rules, and the rules are written down for us to see.
Works well with the PFA (Popular Flying Association) which is a voluntary organisation which is allowed to monitor the building of homebuilt aicraft, testfly them, and authorise them for flight. An astonishing example of how government can be persuaded to let a group of people take control of and organise something for themselves which would otherwise almost certainly be completely banned.
I wonder if there is anyone who cares enough about the "alternative living" thing to try to make it all happen in a similar way.
Mind you, it would be immensely more work than just whingeing.
freddie
Ecovillage UK weblink
10.03.2004 15:55
www.evnuk.org.uk
we have a list of many of the UK Ecovillage projects and are very disappointed to see the Pembrokeshire National Park has such a short-sighted unsustainable planning policy.
Tony
Ecovillage Network UK
e-mail:
evnuk@gaia.org
Homepage:
http://www.evnuk.org.uk