Fight to keep eco-home

By Mid Devon Gazette | Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 08:00

A COUPLE with hopes to build an eco-home in Willand have attempted to win permission to live on agricultural land at a planning appeal.

Diana and Stig Mason outside their home Marcus Thompson EXMT20110916A-003_C

Stig and Dinah Mason say the four-acre plot at Muxbeare Lane was overgrown with stinging nettles and thistles when they bought it two years ago.

They say they have improved the land and need to live on the site permanently to tend to it.

Mid Devon District Council has refused them permission to live on the site and says there is no justification to develop a house there.

It is not convinced the couple can earn a "sustainable livelihood" from their smallholding.

Dinah Mason told the Government planning inspector Neil Pope last week: "We feel there is a big lean towards economic sustainability but our project is about environmental sustainability."

The hearing, at Tiverton Town Hall, was also attended by five objectors.

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Comments

I am sorry that Dinah and Stig have had problems with the planners.
I have visited their land and met them as they were generous "Freecyclers" who responded to my advertised "want" for apples. Their vegetable and fruit plots impressed me and their generosity in giving me carrier bags of spare apples (and a gorgeous red cabbage) was touching.
I wish them well and hope that they may be allowed to stay on their land as they really do need to be there on a daily basis to tend their orchard and large vegetable plots.

By JohnNorfolk at 16:08 on 20/09/11
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Ah but Gribble, you're not speaking your mind, your are commiting it to a public forum. But I do agree, it's a free country. The Mason's are free to go about their business without people judging them on the way they look and want to live their lives. Hang on, judging them on the way they look and want to live their lives, isn't that what happens under sharia law. You're not an Islamic fundamentalist are you Gribble?

Don't worry omnivore, Gribble doesn't wind me up. I have a theory on trolls. Just like the mythical creature they live a miserable life of solitude, where criticising, deriding and basically being nasty to people is the only thing in their existence which abates the constant thoughts of suicide over their worthlessness.

By dholmes2010 at 11:48 on 20/09/11
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Only one person who never lets me down good old Omnivore23

like a moth drawn to the light you cant stay away from me or ignore me

you remind me of a young girl from Tiverton i once knew .............couldnt get rid of her very easy either.

wonder if the couple from willand keep pigs .......as they must smell a bit like A Croydon drain.

By GRIBBLE666 at 11:46 on 20/09/11
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Fair play to them both - the planning laws around the use of (former) agricultural land is in need of a complete overhaul to bring it into the 21st century.

Glad to see Gribble so keen on upholding the law.

Makes you wonder why then he is boasting about breaking it and encouraging others to do so over on the story about Exeter's railway stations,

...... until you remember that Gribble just wants to get a rise from you - ignore him/her and eventually he'll go away and start trying to wind up people on all the other "this is" sites him and his mates like BigDonkey WendyDavey and IvorShed like to frequent to do precisely the same thing. Try Croydon if you are really bored - they're all on there.

By omnivore23 at 11:16 on 20/09/11
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Unfortunately it is one rule for farmers who own agricultural land and one rule for anybody else who owns agricultural land. I know from experience that a farmer and his son who own a farm close to me both told the planners and the committee a pack of lies when submitting their plans for new barns and a new house in the middle of open countryside. They got their plans passed. The likes of the Masons will probably be a different scenario although they can prove they live on site now. The above farmers son said he worked on the fathers farm 24/7 but I know for a fact that he hasn't worked there (only a few hours a week) for the past 4+ years. He lives a good 20 miles from the farm and sub-contracts to other farmers. The father said he could not afford to pay his son a wage as they were not making any money. I can't go into any other details except to say that at least one of the cronies on the planning committee is very good "friends" with the family. It all smacks of underhand practices. I rest my case m'lud.

By 2ladybugs at 11:16 on 20/09/11
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