Extract 5 – The Battle of the Benders

In the fourth extract from my book I visit an off-grid community in Devon which is currently fighting a planning permission battle – on behalf of all of us – for the right to buy some land and build off-grid, low-impact houses.

Land Matters: a question of permission

I contacted the Land Matters commune in Allaleigh, Devon, via an activist group that helps off-gridders and others win planning permission for their living spaces. I spoke to Charlotte, one of the main organisers, who had been living there off and on for three years. There are many eco-communes across Britain, some of them relatively long-standing, like Brith Dir Mawr, Tinker

One Response

  1. H’mmm Nick, just read this website on the 27th june 2011. Ho dear them lot at ‘Land Matters’ must get their heads together and sort out how to live a frugal life, (but also to live in a modern technological society). They’ve really lost their way. I don’t know what the latest is,but it’s not looking good.
    I myself, am just living on my own,split from wife and thinking of selling up and going off-grid.I have chances of going on a farm in a 4 birth caravan,then building a panel van into a self contained home,that would be true off living grid (solar panels,invertor,25ltr water containers,compost toilet,boiled eggs n baked tomatoes for breaky) but these folks (according to your blog,)just don’t seem to have a clue.
    If they’d grown some products and passed them on to the locals they would have been more welcomed.

    It’s all about being on top of your life and helping others.

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