Revised plans for 'eco-village'

A community centre will be at the hub of the eco-village

A group looking to build an eco-village of nine small holdings from straw, turf and timber in Pembrokeshire is making a fresh bid for planning permission.

Original plans for the low-impact site close to the village of Glandwr near the Preseli hills were refused last year after 90 objections.

Lammas, the group behind the bid, has modified its proposals.

It is publishing its plans online to try to convince opponents of the merits of the scheme.

Pembrokeshire Council has a "low impact development" policy drawn up to govern such developments following a protracted dispute over a roundhouse which was built without planning permission at Brithdir Mawr, near Newport in Pembrokeshire.

The policy requires 75% of all household needs to be met directly from the land.

Lammas co-founder Paul Wimbush said they had spent five months re-working their proposals which now included 150 drawings and over 1200 pages of detail.

We are saying 'have a look for yourselves, we think it is good, what do you think?' Paul Wimbush, Lammas

He said the nine dwellings and community hub building on 76 acres of woodland would be built from naturally occurring materials.

Water would be supplied from a spring, electricity from a hydro-electric generator and fuel from biomass crops.

He said each small holding would operate a land-based business making linen shawls from flax, breeding compost worms as well as supplying vegetables, fruit and traditional farm produce.

"We made the whole application electronic and we had the idea of putting it on our website so that people can see what we are talking about," he added.

"We are saying 'have a look for yourselves, we think it is good, what do you think?'."

Council officers raised concerns that some of the structures and potential traffic generation of the initial application were not low impact.

That scheme was also opposed by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

The latest application will be studied by council planners before going before councillors at a future date.