Park's opposition to low-impact housing (From Western Telegraph)

Park's opposition to low-impact housing

DEAR EDITOR, - Thank you for Jenny Hanson's article on our upcoming Easter week camp to deconstruct the Roundhouse. I must, however, take you up on the statement, "In an ironic twist of fate, the (National Park) authority recently voted for the inclusion of a low-impact development policy for Park land in Pembrokeshire's Joint Unitary Development Plan."

Fate my foot! There are many people who have been trying to influence planners to try a new policy for low-impact developments outside towns.

To their credit, the county council planners who attended the Pembrokeshire Environmental Forum produced a draft policy which allows low-impact developments subject to fulfilling stringent criteria. The National Park put in a first clause saying this policy should not operate in the authority.

So many people and organisations (including the National Assembly) wrote to say, 'Why not in the Park area too?' that it has been obliged to do a u-turn. Part of the reason for the public pressure to come up with more sensible policies for eco-friendly homes has been the fact that this Roundhouse has been an example of how it is possible to build a simple, cheap home for less than £3,000 that does not harm the countryside, so people now know what 'low impact' is.

This public inquiry into the draft plans is a rare opportunity for democratic changes to be made to the planning rules. The park authority is going to try to make it massively complicated for anyone to live simply on the earth, so I urge your readers to keep their eyes open and keep tabs on what it is playing at.

TONY WRENCH Brithdir Mawr, Newport.