Young couple, Charlie Hague and Meg Williams are making their last moves to save their eco-home from the bulldozers after their final planning hearing on Tuesday.
The Welsh eco-home has attracted a wealth of attention and over 100,000 signatures have been collected from across the globe.
Williams says:
“We have been blown away by the sustained interest from all over the world. We feel as prepared as possible for the appeal, and we hope the inspector will recognise the work we have put into our application, and consider it on its merits.”
Completed in 2012, the build took 12 months with the help from family and friends, costing a total of £15,000. The couple claim that they were unable to buy a more conventional home due to inflated prices and the increase in holiday homes in the area. Instead, they built on private land owned by Hague’s parents without seeking prior planning permission.
Built using natural materials their roundhouse blends into the landscape of South West Wales, so much so that many locals didn't even know that the property existed.
However a recent article in the Guardian states: ‘Planners ruled the house did not fit in with the surrounding Pembrokeshire countryside’ and a demolition order was passed in 2013.
The structure was built with locally harvested timber and the walls were made using straw bales coated with lime render. The building is also heated by a wood burner and insulated by a turf roof, resembling the hobbit holes of Tolkien’s Shire.
Their only hope rests on this last application meeting, appealing the decision under the “one planet development” (OPD) practice criteria, that requires either ‘65% of all subsistence, or 30% of food and 35% of livelihood, to come from the land’.
They believe that they are reaching the targets through combining sales from Mr Hague's woodwork business, Meg’s soft fruit business and through producing renewable energy on site.
However planning officer David Popplewell said that the property fell short of requirements; a total of nine planning committee members voted to refuse the planning request, while only four voted in favour of the planning application.
Their appeal came to a close on Tuesday and Charlie and Meg are expecting to hear the final results at a later date.