How We Went Off-Grid -: The Full Approved Planning Application, Foreword by Ben Fogle, Easy-to-follow Business Plan for Simple Living

By Matthew Watkinson and Charis Watkinson

A young couple battle for planning permission to live off-grid in a national park, in their self-built home, with solar power, composting loo and rainwater harvesting. Despite concerted opposition from neighbours and lawyers, they manage to get permission to live on £26,000 a year, selling eggs and honey. Readers would substitute the areas the

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vivum Publishing
• Release date: Sep 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9780957432222

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Vivum Publishers

9a Audrey Street, London E2 8QH

A division of Vivum Intelligent Media

www.vivum.net

First published in Great Britain

2022 by Vivum & Off-Grid.net

Copyright © 2022 Matthew & Charis Watkinson

Vivum, Off-Grid and associated logos are trade¬marks and/or

registered trademarks of Vivum Intelligent Media Ltd.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record-ing, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regard¬ing permission, write to Vivum Ltd., Attention: Permissions Department, 9a Audrey Street, London E2 8QH.

Notes from the planners side of the desk written by Caroline Bowen. p. cm

This book is a work of non-fiction, some of which is based on the experiences of the authors. The authors stated to the publisher that the contents of this book are true. All prices and information relating to planning permission are believed to be correct at the time of writing and have been compiled by way of general guidance in relation to the specific property addressed but are not a substitute and not to be relied on for legal or other professional advice on specific circumstances. The authors and the publisher disclaim, as far as the law allows, any liability arising directly or indirectly from the use, or misuse, of any information contained in this book, and welcome any comments, corrections or other suggestions for subsequent editions of this work.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-9574322-1-5 (paperback)

ISBN 978-0-9574322-2-2 (ebook)

ISBN978-0-9574322-3-9 (kindle)

Vivum Publishers makes every effort to ensure that the paper used on this book is made from trees that have been legally and ethically sourced.

Typeset in Great Britain

Summary: A young couple gain planning permission to live a modern version of the Good Life in Pembrokeshire National Park. With all the details you need to do this yourself. Additional chapter by the planning officer, gives the inside story of the application.

[1. Business plans – Non-Fiction. 2. Planning permission—Documents—Non-Fiction.

3. Smallholdings—Non-Fiction. 4. Self-sufficiency -- Non-Fiction. 5. Humorous stories.]

10 9 8 7 6 5 03 04 05 06

*

Table of contents

Foreword by Ben Fogle

Publisher's Note - The Battle to Live in the Countryside

We Escaped and You Could Too

Beeview Timeline – 2013-2022 milestones

Beeview Farm –View from the Planner's Desk

Our Vision – Understanding the Management Plan

Golwgy Gwenyn ...

Management Plan 2016

Summary

Golwgy Gwenyn Naturally Productive. Deliberately Low Impact

Supplementary Evidence Concerning Our Sensory Impact

Policy 47

Some Quotes For Sceptics/Cynics

Other Opinions Are Available

A Summary of Changes Since the Original Management Plan (Dec 15)

A Summary Of changes Since the Appraisal

Responses To Some Possible Grounds For Refusal

Baseline

Design/Strategy

Business And Improvement Plan

Energy And Water

Waste

Zero Carbon Buildings

Community Impact Assessment

Transport And Travel

Ecological Footprint

Phasing, Monitoring And Exiting

Section 106

Trench Warfare With the Objectors

Responses to our Application

The Town Council

The Planning Committee

Prophecies Vs Progress

It’s Our Back Yard Too

Don’t Think You’re So Bloody Smart.

5 Years Monitoring Report

APPENDIX A – COMMUNITY IMPACT

APPENDIX B – EFA

Epilogue

Appendix:

1. Official documents

2. Miscellaneous Application Documents

Authors Bio

FOREWORD

BY BEN FOGLE

I have made more than 100 episodes about people who have gone to live off grid over the last decade, in some of the wildest, far flung corners of the globe, only a handful of which have been here in the United Kingdom.

Undoubtedly the most complex hurdle for those trying to live off grid in England, Wales and Scotland is planning permission. Indeed the current laws are the single biggest obstacle to setting up a new life here in the U.K.

Without planning permission many of the people I filmed would have to remain in the shadows unable to admit where they live and in danger of eviction.

At a time when we are experiencing untold pressure on the environment, a growing population, unemployment, a climate crisis, and a housing crisis, it seems disingenuous that we haven’t tried to encourage more people to live a more sustainably and off-grid life.

That is why the One Planet Development in Wales is such an exciting idea, a policy that encourages people to live a simpler, more sustainable life.

Matthew and Charis were the first people I had ever met who were living under the stewardship of One Planet in Pembrokeshire, which grants separate legal status to those living off grid as long as they meet the strict environmental quotas.

It is a growing movement that is spreading across the nations presenting new opportunities for those who wish to live closer to the land.

For many though, the limiting factor is land itself, both getting hold of it and then getting the permission to live on it.

We need to work together to solve the climate and living crisis. We need to be creative and resourceful. While it isn’t always easy, there is always a way.

I have spent time with people who have been granted permission to set up small holdings on the land of larger estates, living as ‘off grid’ stewards of the land.

I have spent time with communities who have pooled their resources to buy a plot of land together or even an island with which they can build an off grid community.

There are so many exciting options out there, if only you can use your imagination and creativity combined with the resources and ideas presented by Matthew and Charis in this brilliant book about their own lives and their journey to off grid sustainability.

One of the most common questions I get asked is ‘how can we live off grid?’

The reality is that there is no simple answer and no simple solution. We still don’t make it easy here in the U.K., because government both local and National prefer the current status quo that produces a steady stream of taxes, but the movement is growing and over the coming years we will see more and more people embracing a simpler lifestyles.

This book will help guide you through the highs and lows of trying to live off the land in the U.K. today. The triumphs and the tribulations.

Just as living sustainably isn’t always easy, trying to live off grid in the U.K. is a challenge but one that with determination and hope you can embrace just like this remarkable family have in Pembrokeshire.

The beautiful, thoughtful, low impact life that Matthew and Charis have created inspired me to make small changes to my own lifestyle and I hope that one day I will be able to fully embrace a similar lifestyle to theirs, and this book will be my guide.

Good luck in your own off grid dreams, maybe I’ll come and join you.

Ben Fogle 2022

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

There are 4 million acres of agricultural land in Wales - room for thousands to follow the trail Charis and Matthew have already blazed. Vivum, in conjunction with Off-Grid.net, is publishing their successful planning application as a short-cut for other applicants. With farmland averaging £8,000 an acre, the price of entry is low for anyone wanting to live self-sufficiently, and legally, in the countryside.

Just 36% of UK farmland is used for growing crops – the rest is grassland, rough grazing or woodland. If a fraction of this was repopulated, we could solve the affordable housing crisis, regenerate the rural economy, increase the nation’s energy and food resilience, and return the character of the British countryside from something we all drive through, back to the lively and populous state that existed until the 20th century.

Local opposition will be the biggest barrier for many, so we have made the full file of objection and support letters available by download (redacted of course), and included official responses in the book.

How We Went Off-Grid will also be useful for council planning officers seeking guidance on what counts as an acceptable application in a new and rapidly developing category.

The full planning framework can be found at:

https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-06/planning-permission-one-planet-developments-in-open-countryside.pdf

And we will issue updates whenever there are important developments at: https://off-grid.net/howwewentoffgrid

Downloads and updates will be found, password protected, at the following URL:

https://off-grid.net/howwewentoffgrid/downloads. Password is offgridnet.

The Management Plan reproduced in full below is the key document for an application under One Planet Development (OPD) rules. Matthew and Charis received their permission in 2016, and filed a 5-yearly Monitoring report (included below) in 2021 - to prove they had stuck to the plan - which they had.

At time of writing, OPD is limited to a few planning authorities outside Wales, including Dartmoor national park. Cornwall county council is actively considering OPD, as is the town of Glastonbury in Somerset, where the Green Party has taken charge. In Devon, planners recognise that Netzero targets make it likely they will have to adopt One Planet principles in due course. Shropshire and East Lindsey have single plot exceptions.

Vivum publishes Off-Grid.net – an online hub for off-grid living and technology, information, people and resources, and also Landbuddy.com – a global Google map mashup which allows people looking for off-grid land to pool resources with others who have land, or who are also looking. We will continue to document and publish success stories and technical advice as the opportunity arises.

Marston, C.G.; Rowland, C.S.; O’Neil, A.W.; Morton, R.D. (2022). Land Cover Map 2021 (10m rasterised land parcels, GB). NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre.

1

WE ESCAPED AND YOU

COULD TOO

We didn’t actually buy our land to live on it. We bought it as a retreat. Somewhere wild and peaceful to escape to occasionally. We could have put down a normal deposit on a normal house for a normal life with that money, but we didn’t trust normal anymore.

Our careers as vets had proved to be stressful and unhealthy. The 2008 financial crisis had taught us that we had no idea what money even was, never mind a collateralized debt obligation or a credit default swap. We had finally fully accepted that we were as dependent on supermarkets and utility companies for our basic survival needs as a newborn baby on its parents, and the environmental crisis that had been obvious for decades was only getting worse. ‘Normal’ seemed like madness, so we spontaneously decided to spend our house deposit on some muddy Welsh fields instead.

The plan was to visit at weekends and holidays to unwind. We were going to camp by the stream, plant some trees and fruit bushes, learn how to forage and hunt, and generally just get away from it all. One weekend was all it took to realise we actually wanted to do that all the time. We didn’t want to leave. Purchasing the land had been a sort of subconscious need, then the land took over. What might have seemed like just three fields suddenly became much more important than that. It became part of the family.

Not that we had a family at that point. Or even planned one. The world was too depressing to even consider kids in 2011. But by 2012 we’d quit our jobs in Essex and moved to Wales to live near our fields and by late 2013 we were feeling so much more alive and hopeful that Charis was pregnant with Elsa.

We’d also started planning to make our land our home, and Elsa only increased our motivation. We can’t remember exactly when, but at some point in those first few years we’d discovered that the Welsh Government allowed people to live on land outside normal planning zones if they were willing to live the very low impact, self-sufficient lifestyle we were desperately seeking. It’s called the One Planet Development planning policy and it allows people to live off-grid on their own land in exchange for a commitment to live within your fair share of the Earth’s resources and a comprehensive management plan explaining exactly how you’re going to do that.

If you’re outside Wales, the application routes may be different, but if you want to live a low-impact life off-grid, the basic process will probably be very similar:

THE VISION

The vision is the start of it all and an emergent property of circumstances that will be unique to you. It’s a combination of what you think is possible on land you’ve fallen in love with in light of the legal options available. Nobody can create it for you. You’ve got to decide what type of land you want to buy (woodland or pasture, rough or flat, north-facing or south-facing, local or remote, open or private etc. etc. etc. etc.), then you’ve got to find it and buy it, and then you’ve got to imagine it’s future potential and find out how much of that you might actually be allowed to do. How are going to deal with heat, electricity, gas, shelter, water, food, waste, culture, community and are you allowed to deal with them in these ways in your chosen location? We don’t know. That’s your job. We can only show your our vision for our land under the most suitable application route in our location. Which is why we’ve included the vast management plan we wrote to explain our vision in this book. It wasn’t perfect, but it was successful and so could be a useful template for others seeking a similar path.

THE APPLICATION

Once you have a realistic vision, the next stage is the application and that’s where things can get messy and unpleasant. Day dreaming about the future is liberating and exciting when you’re doing it on your own or with people you love, but it can be a very different experience when you’re doing it in front of skeptical planning authorities and irate neighbours. Many give up before they even get to this point, but you don’t need to give up, you just need to be realistic and that’s why we’ve gone into so much detail about the application process. Again, your journey could be very different, but low-impact lives off-grid aren’t very popular with some of the more conservative sections of society and those trying can face some pretty determined local resistance. We certainly did. Having met some of our neighbours we were already expecting a rough ride, but we still underestimated the levels of talent, wealth, time and influence that would be mobilised against us. There were practising and retired lawyers, doctors, teachers, farmers, police officers and agricultural scientists, all working together to coordinate gossip campaigns, objection strategies, petitions and political lobbying efforts. And they were all pushing against an open door as well because, as the planning officer dealing with our case will shortly explain, the biggest NIMBY of all was the planning authority itself. Everything was stacked against us. We were a pair of Davids facing an army of Goliaths.

But we still managed to get permission. With the inspiring support of friends, family and some of the more progressive members of the local community, and with an unprejudiced, objective planning officer, we won the right to build a new life for ourselves and we genuinely believe that you could to.

THE REST

The exact details of how we built that whole new life will have to be for another book. The main focus of this book is just getting permission for it. We have included a performance review to prove once and for all that we deserved to get that permission though. Again, the details are specific to our situation, but we have dealt with the challenge of going off-grid on land we fell in love with in light of the legal options available.

And despite all the cynical resistance we faced as well. Indeed, the review also shows you exactly why you don’t need to be scared of the potential fallout. Yes, they’ll probably be some very loud people saying some very negative things in some very confident ways about your application, but that just means you’ll have the same opportunity we’ve had to eventually make them look as silly as they were wrong.

Whatever anybody else says, going off-grid in the UK is possible. We’ve proved it and now we’d like to share what we’ve learnt with others who might end up attempting it. This isn’t a prescriptive how-to guide, it’s a successful case-study, something to plunder and ignore as you see fit. It’s the book we wished we’d been able to read when we started. It’s raw, honest, irreverent and often quite spicy but, whatever we say, you do it your way. If you don’t want to tiptoe round the nastiest NIMBYs, don’t. And if you do, do. Every journey off-grid is different. This is ours. Starting with a brief timeline and then a fairly shocking planner’s eye view by Caroline Bowen, the case officer assigned to deal with our application for a small, low-impact off-grid farm and home.

BEEVIEW FARM TIMELINE

April 2011 Look at land

May 2011 Make offer

July 2011 Complete on buying the land

April 2012 Quit jobs and move to Wales

May 2012 First beehive on site

Oct 2012 Ducks and Chickens on site

Dec 2012 Plant tress for future coppice

2013 Find out about One Planet Law (OPD) and start writing application

Dec 2015 Submit OPD application

May 2016 Site visit from Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority (PCNPA) Planning Committee

July 2016 Planning Committee hearing. Voted 8 against 7 in favour of granting planning permission

Aug 2016 Moved 7.5tn horse lorry onto site to start converting as our home

Dec 2016 Moved onto site

May 2021 Submit 5-year monitoring report – the final step to permanent planning permission

2

BEEVIEW FARM – VIEW

FROM THE PLANNER’S

DESK.

By Caroline Bowen –the planning case officer at Pembrokeshire National Park, who handled Matthew and Charis’s application

Matthew and Charis first contacted me in early 2015 with their pre-application proposal. I had joined Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority after college in 2004 to specialise in rural planning and protected landscapes.

I knew all about the history and purpose of National Parks, how they are administered, the ‘special qualities’ that set those landscapes above other non-designated landscapes, but I was unprepared for a deeply rooted mindset that the National Park was sacrosanct. It quickly became apparent that ‘development’ was treated with suspicion - that ‘development’ was always harmful to the Park. 

In short, the National Park was to be protected from any development at all, simply because it was a National Park. You can look, but you can’t touch.

By 2011 ‘One Planet Development’ had been introduced in Wales - a national planning policy supporting off-grid living. Applicants had to make informed choices about consumption to meet a carbon footprint smaller than the Welsh average, and still meet their essential needs. It was a radical departure from accepted norms of planning. And it is now spreading to English counties including Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.

It was only the second such application we received, and the first one had been refused. There was no way I could recommend it to the other officers in its initial form. Because it was all so new, I needed Matthew and Charis to provide a shedload of new information.

I am embarrassed to recall the initial pre-application letter I sent to Matthew and Charis, full of formal planning jargon as arbiter of all things considered appropriate in the ‘National Park countryside’. As soon as it had gone, I knew it was patronizing, especially from someone who was sat at a desk for a living. Thankfully, Matthew did not hesitate to push back.

Their full planning application was submitted two days before Christmas 2015. In preparation I attended a training session provided by the One Planet Council, and read everything I could find on low impact development, sustainable development, sustainable agriculture and forestry, permaculture. I’m pretty old-school in that respect – planners generally have a little knowledge on a wide range of issues, so in order to fully understand an application, research is needed. By this time, I was one of four planning officers, and the only one with a planning degree.

The nature of the objections to Matthew and Charis’s application shocked me. I am not usually surprised at what objectors are prepared to commit to in writing (or email). This was different – a whole level of involvement that went far beyond land use considerations into character assassination, not just of the applicants, but of me as well. At the time, I didn’t challenge it – I regret that now in hindsight, but in local government, management consider this par for the course/comes with the territory etc. I would advise differently now – if a consultation response refers to you personally in anyway, then you can insist it is removed, and the comments kept strictly to land use matters only.

I had to deal with many of these letters over a long time period. I went out on site to meet some of the objectors, and they contacted