Green Belt Planning Permission?

freshfruitbandit

My father owns a 1.3 acre plot of land that is at the bottom of his garden. It is linked to his garden through a small pedestrian gate and he has owned it for about 8 years. It used to be owned by the railways. It already has an access route to a road through a large gate.

It's a very rural and secluded plot of land with only one large property able to have any view of it at all.

I'd love to be able to build a modern 4 bed innovative eco home for my family on this plot of land. I want to build a property that uses things such as solar, wind, ground heat and recycled rain water to keep it's carbon footprint and utility bills to a minimum. I'd love to have my own veggie patch, keep chickens and have a garden that my kids can play football etc in.

I haven't yet started to find out how hard planning would be or what i need to do in a situation like this and was wondering if anyone, particularly architects have any advice about the best way to try and get planning permission granted or how likely it is to get it.

Thanks

eddddy

Ask you local planning authority for pre-application advice.

Depending on the local authority... some let you just walk in and ask (during certain hours), some let you make an appointment, some want you to write an informal letter...

... and some will charge you a small fee.

Either way, it may be helpful to provide some kind of map/location plan, and perhaps some photos, when you ask for the advice.

Doozergirl

Essentially, you cannot build new homes in the greenbelt since 1947.

Houses can be built with agricultural ties, but you'd have to prove an absolute necessity of needing to live on site to support your agricultural business - eg. Needing to milk your cows or birth lambs in the night.

Gummer's law was introduced in 1997 for exceptional houses - the type of house affordable only by the super rich. The number of those houses built since 1997 are barely into three figures.

http://www.homebuilding.co.uk/2012/09/30/building-in-the-countryside-planning-permission/

https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/2012/09/30/para-55-how-the-clauses-evolved/

Waterlily24

We live in a rural area too, we are just in what is called 'countryside'. Our neighbour tried to get permission for his son to build a property on his land/garden. I reckon his land must be about 4 acres. He was refused permission, he's tried again a few times but refused each time.

We had terrible trouble trying to get permission for an extension. Got it in the end but it wasn't what we wanted. It took nearly three years.

freshfruitbandit

Looks like it might be impossible then. But will give it a shot.

Waterlily24

Good luck.

freshfruitbandit

Thanks. The sustainable home i could build for my family on this plot of land for £400k and the happiness and education it would bring is immeasurable. Or the land can sit there nothing absolutely nothing, being enjoyed by nobody (no one can see it for the trees that surround it) or i can by a smallish house with a small garden for the same money in the area. It has to be worth a shot and maybe someone can see and feel what i do.

Doozergirl

freshfruitbandit wrote: »

Thanks. The sustainable home i could build for my family on this plot of land for £400k and the happiness and education it would bring is immeasurable. Or the land can sit there nothing absolutely nothing, being enjoyed by nobody (no one can see it for the trees that surround it) or i can by a smallish house with a small garden for the same money in the area. It has to be worth a shot and maybe someone can see and feel what i do.

Good Luck. I have the same feeling about a piece of concrete brownfield. The council have not seen and felt what I do.

Davesnave

freshfruitbandit wrote: »

Thanks. The sustainable home i could build for my family on this plot of land for £400k and the happiness and education it would bring is immeasurable. Or the land can sit there nothing absolutely nothing, being enjoyed by nobody (no one can see it for the trees that surround it) or i can by a smallish house with a small garden for the same money in the area. It has to be worth a shot and maybe someone can see and feel what i do.

Or a sceptic like me might think, "Eco houses in rural places, like Pembrokeshire, have sometimes been given exceptional planning, so this guy wants to try his luck by putting a big eco hat on."

Now I'm not saying that's the case, but I begin to be suspicious when I read that the land is doing 'absolutely nothing,' like that's someone's fault. Well, if there's blame,your father should shoulder it, because he's the one who's left it idle.

Alternatively, the land could be viewed as quite a good place for wildlife. It's by no means essential that human beings have to see it and appreciate it, or use it as a resource.

But here's another idea. The government have relaxed the conditions for barn conversions somewhat, so there is a prospect of converting something genuinely wasted, as there are plenty of redundant non-listed farm buildings about, some of them being sold off with a token piece of land. You could put your eco ideas into practice with one of those, which would be a kind of green-brownfield development.

Doozergirl

Davesnave, the head of planning at our local authority absolutely sniffed at 'eco houses' in greenbelt. They must get it ALL the time.

Exceptional has to be truly exceptional.

Houses with renwables plonked onto them aren't exceptional. The last Labour government want that to be the norm by next year. The conservatives have just scrapped it, but that won't make something exceptional.

Davesnave

Doozergirl wrote: »

Davesnave, the head of planning at our local authority absolutely sniffed at 'eco houses' in greenbelt. They must get it ALL the time.

I'm sure they do. And I agree, the ones that have gone though have had to be ground-breaking in some way.

e.g. http://lammas.org.uk/ecovillage/

Perhaps the council thought they were just dealing with a bunch of useless hippies, but those guys proved up to the challenge! :rotfl: