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Pleiades hut at Newport's eco community Brithdir Mawr | SUSTAINABLE housing group, Lammas, unveiled its plans to build an eco village in Pembrokeshire’s Preseli hills last weekend.
The group released the second draft of its low impact settlement proposal at Narberth’s Queens Hall on Saturday. This draft explores the option of establishing a community at Pont-y-Gafel farm near Glandwr - a site with natural spring water, hydro electric possibilities, and a sympathetic owner.
The site, a mixture of wood and farmland has been identified as suitable by the group. They held initial meetings with the neighbouring community last month, and have developed a good working relationship with the landowner.
“The plot seems the perfect location for our project,” said group spokesman Paul Wimbush.
"Should things continue to evolve as smoothly as they have to date, we expect to apply for outline planning permission this autumn or winter."
The development on 175 acres of farmland and woodland would host 30 to 45 eco-dwellings built around a central village green.
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Brithdir Mawr's guest hut | The project would incorporate a visitor centre, shop, workshop and hostel as well as sustainably built houses with access to agricultural and forestry plots.
Dwellings would be self-built, and residents would need to demonstrate that they were satisfying 75% of their basic household needs from the land. Each household would supply its own electricity, and vehicle ownership would be restricted.
Lammas has been involved in the development of Pembrokeshire’s new Low Impact Policy. The group believe that this policy places Pembrokeshire at the cutting edge of sustainable living solutions.
Earlier in the year Lammas said that it was looking at sites in either Swansea, Carmarthenshire or Pembrokeshire to build a sustainable, self-powered community.
The group has decided to focus its attention on Pembrokeshire because of the positive nature of the low impact policy. It intends to enter into a dialogue with the county’s planners as soon as the policy is implemented by Pembrokeshire County Council next month.
“Our intention is to create a safe, people-friendly community model which, once established, would require a minimum of management whilst allowing a maximum of freedom to residents,” said Paul.
“We aim to facilitate the flourishing of sustainable lifestyles and livelihoods.”
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| Tony Wrench, chair of Lammas, built the round house at Brithdir Mawr Newport. | At least a quarter of the residential plots would be reserved for people who had been already resident for at least three years in towns or villages neighbouring the project, another quarter would be available to people living in the region.
In a county where the average property price has more than trebled in the last decade, Lammas aims to keep house prices low. It stipulates that all dwellings are occupied full time, thus preventing holiday home use.
The group plans to sell residential licenses to people who have already lived in south west Wales for at least a year and only sell licenses to those who have passed a sustainable livelihood test.
The group plans to continue consultation with the local community, and apply for outline planning permission by the end of this year. A five-year construction process would begin this time next year.
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 Pembrokeshire Could Host Eco Village
Lammas, a sustainable housing organisation, will soon be seeking a plot of land in either Pembrokeshire, Camarthenshire or Swansea to site a low cost, eco-housing project.
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