When planning laws don't apply.

When you are a bunch of soap dodging hippies.

Lost middle-class tribe’s ‘secret’ eco-village in Wales spotted in aerial photograph taken by plane
For five happy years they enjoyed simple lives in their straw and mud huts. Generating their own power and growing their own food, they strived for self-sufficiency and thrived in homes that looked more suited to the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings. Then a survey plane chanced upon the ‘lost tribe’… and they were plunged into a decade-long battle with officialdom.

Yesterday that fight, backed by more modern support for green issues, ended in victory. The eco-community in the Preseli mountains of west Wales was set up in 1993 and lived contentedly away from the rat race round a 180-acre farm bought by Julian and Emma Orbach.

In 1998, it was spotted when sunlight was seen glinting off a solar panel on the main building, which was built from straw bales, timber and recycled glass. When the pilot reported back, officials were unable to find any records, let alone planning permission, for the mystery hillside village surrounded by trees and bushes. They insisted the grass-covered buildings should be demolished.

The eco-community endured a decade of inquiries, court cases and planning hearings. The 22 villagers fought planners even when they were within hours of the bulldozers moving in to demolish their eight homes. Now, however, they can celebrate, thanks to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority’s ‘sustainability’ policy.

With green issues now getting a more sympathetic hearing, the commune has been given planning approval for its roundhouses along with lavatories, agricultural buildings and workshops.

Now I have had some personal experience of council planning offices, the red tape, drone like obedience to each clause by said employees of those offices. I am sure that many people who have had to fill in endless forms, waste endless hours and get the run around from desk to desk to get even the simplest things done will have some sympathy for these eco types.

You might say that they should have applied at the start, mind had they done that it most likely would have taken even longer than the decade long fight for the local authorities to grant permission for their hobbit like commune.

Still one has to ask quite why the local authorities had to get so obsessed over planning permission for people on private land, doing their own thing well away from every one else? It comes down to the mindset that authorities have that they have to approve what people do on their own land, else it is illegal.

Maybe if the same authorities spent as much time and effort chasing travellers off of land they take over illegally, made them clear up the rubbish they leave behind and chased them for the costs that taxpayers have to cover as well as ensuring their vehicles are taxed and insured then this might not be so unfair.

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