One of the Welsh Government’s landmark planning policies - known as One Planet Development - is at a crossroads. Pioneered by former Environment Minister Jane Davidson, OPD encourages individuals and families to build homes and live their lives in a way that reduces their carbon emissions massively.
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority is currently carrying out a five-year review of an OPD project near Newport, Pembs, to see whether it has met the policy’s requirements.
The project, devised by Matthew and Charis Watkinson, two former vets from Essex who have moved to the area, where they live with their two young children, has received a great deal of publicity in newspapers, magazines and on TV.
Read more: The family who quit the rat race to sell chicken eggs and live in an old horse box
It has its passionate advocates, who believe the Watkinsons are setting an example that many others should follow. But it also has its detractors, including a group of local residents who oppose OPD on the grounds that it allows applicants to bypass normal planning rules.
They also believe the national park authority has mismanaged the project by failing to monitor it properly. The disagreements have created local tensions, with both sides admitting that a significant amount of bitterness has been generated.
This is unfortunate, given that OPD developments are meant to go ahead in areas where the neighbours are supportive.
Mr Watkinson bought a plot of land, and in 2016 got planning permission to build a home on Mynydd Carningli – a mountain in the beautiful Preseli Hills, overlooking the sea. In normal circumstances, planning permission wouldn’t be granted for a stand-alone development in such a sensitive and, some would say, spiritual landscape.
A decision is due to be made on whether the Watkinsons can demonstrate with statistics that they have done enough since the project began to warrant the granting of permanent planning permission.
The residents' group has numerous concerns about the project, one of which is that no permanent structure has actually been erected on the site.
The group is also sceptical about the applicant's claim to have achieved a sustainable lifestyle by selling home-grown produce. It is also claimed that the OPD site does not have access to water of its own.
Residents state that while annual reports have been written about the project's progress, figures have been redacted after the Year 2 report, making it impossible for members of the community to evaluate whether it is succeeding or not.
The group of local residents say the redactions appear to run counter to the requirement that OPD projects should coexist harmoniously with local communities.
They have also raised concerns about what they see as an inappropriate level of support given to the project by a former planning officer with the park authority, who at an early stage misrepresented a petition of opposition to the project as one supportive of it.
A spokesman for the group said: “There has been a growing awareness that the demands and responsibilities which OPD policy has put on planners render them hopelessly out of their depth in areas where they have no expertise.
“When confronted with a case like this, they simply cannot cope.”
The Watkinsons have recently published a book called How We Went Off Grid which explains the progress of the project from the outset.
In a blog post, Mr Watkinson said: “[The book] contains most of the documents from our successful planning application. Not all of it is literary gold of course.
“Management plans, impact assessments and expert appraisals aren't addictive page turners, they've been included as useful reference material for those considering their own attempt to get permission for a new life off-grid.
“We have included a lot that wasn't just written for the planning system though - including a fairly spicy review of the behaviour of our objectors in light of our actual performance during and since our application.
“Indeed, that was always the risk for them. One day we'd be able to judge them and their melodramatic prophecies against the evidence and by gum we have! That day has now come and it is glorious!”
A spokesman for Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority said: “The authority is currently analysing the results of the monitoring of this OPD, in order to determine whether the management plan needs revision and whether the targets initially set out have been met.
“The management plan is reviewed every five years, not just for the first five years, in accordance with Welsh Government guidance and if the plan requires amendments to reflect any differences from the original development, this can be taken into account in subsequent management plans. These allow for changed circumstances and the potential need to change the business model on which the OPD is based.
“Personal and commercially sensitive information is redacted from planning documents available to the public but those assessing the monitoring of this application have access to the original unredacted information.
“While a petition in opposition to this application was incorrectly listed as being in support of the application in the planning officer’s report regarding the original OPD application, this error was clarified during the discussion of the application at the authority’s development management committee before the final vote was taken. This is recorded in the confirmed minutes for this meeting.”
The Welsh Government has described OPD as “an exemplar form of sustainable living”. Inhabitants are required to provide for their minimum needs, for example income, food and energy, and must submit a management plan explaining how and when they will meet OPD requirements.
Local planning authorities must be satisfied that sufficient and robust evidence has been provided to ensure an OPD is fully justified.
According to national planning guidance, OPD developments qualify if they are able to achieve an ecological footprint of 2.8 global hectares per person after five years.
The management plan requires a business plan, ecological and carbon footprint analysis, biodiversity and landscape assessment, and community impact and transport assessment.
Other potential OPD applicants as well as communities all over Wales will be waiting to read the park authority’s judgement on the Watkinsons’ project with great interest.
It could determine the way future applications are handled - and whether more could be done to ensure local communities are supportive of such initiatives.
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