Hobbit House lessons on eco-friendly planning

Pembrokeshire's Hobbit House challenges planners

The on-going saga surrounding the so-called ‘Hobbit House’ in north Pembrokeshire epitomises all that is most frustrating about the county’s planning system. Here we have a young couple, like so many other young people desperate to get on the housing ladder, who have taken matters into their own hands in an imaginative and eco-friendly way. In the process they have confronted an unfriendly planning system in county hall, won plaudits from architectural celebrities, mobilised a world-wide social media campaign, and dragged in the Welsh Government’s planning inspectorate.

Megan Williams and Charlie Hague and their new born son Eli moved into their hobbit-style roundhouse in the garden of Megan’s parent’s home in Glandwr near Crymych in 2012. It had taken them a year to self-build at a cost of  £12,000. It’s a remarkable, individually designed structure that reflects Charlie’s woodworking skills. Timber-framed, its walls are straw bales to conserve energy, and the roof is made of turf. Inside is a hobbit’s paradise. Outside the single-storey dwelling occupies a secluded spot, well out of sight. It overlooks a large pond in a garden where Megan grows raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, redcurrants, whitecurrants, strawberries, and rhubarb for sale. The trouble is that Megan and Charles did not apply for planning permission for the building in advance – probably they had no detailed plans before they started – and only did so retrospectively.

Predictably, last July the county’s planning committee turned them down, by nine votes to four. Haverfordwest councillor Peter Stock said, “I do not think there is anyone in Wales who would be against this development. I think it is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.” But Lampeter Velfrey councillor Rob Simpson, Cabinet Member for Housing and Sustainability said that despite the building’s relatively low visual impact, it eroded the rural character of its surroundings and represented “an unsustainable form of development in terms of distance from day to day facilities.” He went on to say that he would hate to see the building pulled down but that letting it stay would set a precedent. And he added, “I hope that we can find a way so that this development can remain, either at the Assembly level or whatever, but unfortunately there are rules and regulations that we must follow.”

Megan and Charlie lodged an appeal against the county council and a hearing was held in Hermon community hall last week. The Welsh Government’s Planning Inspector Kay Williams will announce a decision in the next couple of months. But she hinted last week that she might be minded to stay an execution of the hobbit house so long as a sustainable design and management plan for it can be agreed with Pembrokeshire County Council.

What this case tells us is that our planning procedures should move away from what seems to be an automatic prior presumption against development. This is certainly the case with the National Park, and is often the case with the County Council, especially with individual applications. Instead we need an approach that asks, “How can we co-operate together to ensure that developments can be allowed to proceed on a community friendly and environmental basis?”