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The Land Is Ours

a landrights campaign for Britain

Sustainability is the ability to continue, over decades, with a certain activity without any detriment to, or using up resources from, the natural environment. We might as well acknowledge now that if we truly seek sustainability we must, sooner or later, cease all of the following unsustainable practices:

• Using artificial pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers.
• Covering up any more of the earth's surface with tarmac, concrete or other solid impermeable material.
• Generating more waste gases than the Earth's forests and seas has the capacity for. (This means, for example, cutting CO2 from burning fossil fuels in homes, power stations and vehicles by 60-70%.)
• Putting any non-biodegradable substances into Earth, air or sea.

In this future, we will rely much more on local organic produce for food and clothing. Building materials, spare parts and other goods will also be locally produced. Towns will be greener and free of petrol and diesel-powered vehilces. Farms will be smaller and more diversified. They will be less dependent on machines and more labour intensive. They may be centres for crafts, food production and nature conservation. Most homes will harvest rainwater and sunshine. Energy will come from sun, wind and water. Many people will work from home - those that work elsewhere will get there on foot, bicycle, zero-emission car or cheap and efficient public transport. Electronic communications will be increasingly dominant, and may play a part in local referenda on decisions affecting the community.

Such a society cannot be imposed from above. What our planners can do now, however, is to take time out to get clear on some kind of vision of a sustainable future, then to set up new procedures to enable it to evolve. It is at this point that the Agenda 21 process is relevant, as it has enabling and empowerment as its essence - a saying yes to people when they come up with ideas for sustainable developments in their own lives. If planners continue to say no to any such proposals, they must be very clear and open with us about which standards, values and goals they are defending. The status quo is no longer an option because the status quo is unsustainable. We must change to survive.

My particular interes t in this is dwellings - habitats integrating people and wildlife. One significant move planners could make would be to revise all the restrictions on buildings and land use putting sustainability as a key priority. Local Plans are now sprouting references to the need for sustainability, but as yet few policies have actually been proposed that would make much difference. The relatively new discipline of Permaculture has arisen as part of this need for a holistic, ecologically sound viewpoint - it is an integrated set of design principles and methods that can be adopted by any person, family or community in order to live in a sustainable way. Permaculture invites us to imagine humans living as one species among many, in a well-designed habitat among the habitats of other creatures. A permaculturally-designed home will have sustainability as its main purpose, so will face the south to maximise solar gain, will have excellent insulation, and will collect most of the rainwater falling on it. Organic wastes will be composted on site and the garden surrounds will be laid out to maximise food potential and diversity of land and animal life. The house may have a workshop nearby, share a power generation source with its neighbours, and may need no connection to electricity, water or sewage mains. Permaculture seeks to build supportive communities, both urban and rural.

There are many people in this area who have the heart and the dedication to be pioneers living sustainably in the countryside, using the benefits of modern alternative technology. The big problem has up to now been a simple one: planners have not been willing to recognise the importance of holistic low impact sites enough to allow them to be developed.

John Gummer has said in his introduction to 'Sustainable Development - the UK Strategy', that sustainability must be put at the touchstone of government policies. This means that the first question to be asked, by planners, of any proposed development should now be: 'Is this sustainable?'. What would be the implications of a large number of this kind of development - on wildlife, on the economic life of the community, or on the fabric of the ecosystem in general? What would the place look like in a hundred years? What would it smell like?

Permaculture Land

The owner of a permaculture plot would in effect make a contractual agreement with the local authority - 'In exchange for the freedom to live, work, build and garden on this land, I will guarantee to treat this plot with the main goal of sustainability. I will plant a minimum of 20 trees per acre. I will not subdivide nor speculate with the plot. I will co-operate with neighbours on roads, water, electricity and sewage. I will operate in accordance with the Permaculture Land Standards'. (A set of simple criteria covering maximum height of buildings or structures, high insulation for floors, roofs and walls, the use of local and a natural building materials, and environmental protection. A good example is given as Appendix D of 'Low Impact Development' by Simon Fairlie, publ. Jon Carpenter. We could produce our own standards for West Wales). Most writers on this subject suggest that permission be usually given as temporary for five years.

There are plenty of badly-housed people who would jump at a chance to build and live in harmony with nature. There is plenty of countryside in need of peopling, as it once was, with caring humans and diverse creatures. There are eco-villages springing up all around the world. Self-build, ecologically sound and technologically advanced. What would it take for this to start here?

Planners would have to make allowances and enable more experimentation, thereby enabling the survival of a traditional line of individuals of initiative living spread out in nooks and crannies of the countryside, simply and humbly. Visually, the landscape need never suffer. Building structures would be local, natural materials, and be designed for low environmental impact. I would argue that in most cases a well-designed permaculture site could be said to have a positive environmental effect - this includes the effect that its inhabitants might have in managing or keeping the balance in a delicate ecosystem. An example of this might be a house inhabited by people who were able to maintain working horses on site; the horses playing a vital part in the maintenance of wildflower meadows. Advantages to the council would be that such developments would provide a useful sounding board and testing ground for more general guidelines for all kinds of development, both public and private. Permaculture land developers could work in partnership with local designers and makers of products to improve simple heat insulating systems, solar collectors, damp-proof membranes for earth-sheltered buildings and so on. The councils first espousing such ideas (eg Newark in Nottinghamshire) are already finding themselves the focus of much interest and support from other organisations seeking sustainable solutions.

Finally might I suggest that local authorities undertake research as to the potential response from the population on the likely interest in self-build ecohome projects, especially for young people. Such developments could serve many beneficial functions and be part of the commitment to sustainable development called for an espoused locally in Agenda 21.

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