Eco-community wins fight to stay

The eco-community on Dartmoor is home to a number of families

Residents in a Devon eco-community have been granted permission to continue living there for another five years.

A dozen adults and eight children live at the Steward Community Woodland near Moretonhampstead on Dartmoor.

They live in homes made of recycled materials and have no mains services, apart from a telephone line.

Dartmoor Park refused planning permission for the residents to stay but the decision was overturned on appeal by a planning inspector.

Back to basics

The site was set up nine years ago for people who wished to live in a more sustainable way both on and with the land.

Living in low impact dwellings constructed of wood, canvas, blankets, boards and old windows, residents rely on water from a spring and electricity generated through solar panels and a micro hydro system which uses water from the spring to power a turbine.

The planning staff here and legal staff that have been involved in the inquiry are quite astounded and very shocked at this decision Chris France Dartmoor National Park

The back-to basics lifestyle also sees residents eating meals together in a communal 'longhouse' containing a kitchen and sitting room.

They manage the woodland and stage courses among other types of work to generate income for a communal kitty to run the site.

However temporary planning permission for the 32-acre site ran out in September 2007 and Dartmoor National Park refused to renew it but their decision was overruled on a planning appeal.

The appeal outcome has shocked Chris France, director of planning at Dartmoor National Park.

'Absolutely thrilled'

"My personal views and the planning staff here and legal staff that have been involved in the inquiry are quite astounded and very shocked at this decision," he said.

"If you look at how farmers have to go through a vigorous assessment and a number of financial and functional tests to gain a dwelling in the open countryside and yet here we have a whole community that really haven't justified the need to live in the open countryside."

However Dan Thompson-Mills, who has lived at the site since it was set up, said the planning inspector recognised the importance of the work on sustainable living being done there.

He said: "We are absolutely thrilled and so excited to have permission after all the work we put in.

"It feels like recognition of the good work we have done here over the nine years we have been here and also a recognition that we have got great plans for the future."