Families fight to prove eco-life is possible

Mar 17 2008 by Steffan Rhys, Western Mail

IT LOOKS like a world created by Tolkien but there could soon be a hamlet of small earthen homes in the Welsh countryside.

Low-impact lifestyle group Lammas – named after the first wheat harvest of the year – is hoping to build a settlement of nine eco-smallholdings, a campsite and a community hub building on a 74-acre site of mixed pasture and woodland next to the village of Glandwr, near Narberth.

The homes would consist of five detached dwellings and a terrace of four dwellings, all built from straw bale, earth and timber, which would resemble one already in existence near Carmarthen.

The village would be completely independent of all mains services, with water sourced from an existing spring and rainwater collected from rooftops.

The village’s electricity would be produced on site using renewable sources including an existing water turbine system and all organic waste would be composted on site using a combination of compost toilets, wormeries and compost heaps.

Fuel, in the form of coppiced willow and elephant grass, would be grown on site.

The nine households would raise income through small-scale farm businesses producing goods which would be marketed through local shops and a Lammas market stall.

“We aim to demonstrate it is possible to live a modern lifestyle which does not cost the Earth,” said Lammas’s Paul Wimbush, 35, a carpenter from Gower who hopes to move himself, his wife Hoppi, 39, and three children aged between four and 18 into a home which will feature straw bale walls and a turf roof.

“We plan to be largely self-sufficient, growing most of our food. We will keep cows, geese, chickens, ducks and bees.

“We plan to grow hazelnuts, apples, plums and strawberries as an income. All our fuel will be grown on the plot using a willow short rotation coppice. We intend to supplement our income by continuing to work one day a week.”

The eco-village became possible when Pembrokeshire County Council implemented its low impact development policy, one of only two local authorities in the UK to have introduced such a policy. Lammas, which consists of nine families including teachers, website designers and engineers, was formed in August 2005 with the aim of forming a community which adhered to the policy.

Their plans were initially rejected by Pembrokeshire planning officials because of a lack of detail but the group resubmitted comprehensive plans last week and are now optimistic about approval.