Update

In the ecovillage there are sites that already have planning permission, and have done for five years or more. As none have been sold or built on yet, the ecovillage is seeking to extend the permissions. A couple of people suggested we should look at these sites as an alternative. Liam worked on some adjustments to the plans for one of the sites but that didn’t really work for us, neither did any of the other sites.

 

The ecovillage was going to see if one of the planning permissions to be extended could be surrendered and ours approved instead.

 

Meantime we’re hoping progress has been with the relevant permissions and licences for the ecovillage treatment plan, and that the Water Department are happy that the treatment samples they are receiving meet their requirements.

 

A couple of weeks ago, Liam and the representative of a wastewater treatment company got together. It seems that the company could put in a single system for 38/39 but the site is very tight to get the necessary percolation area. The company looked at the stream and said that up North systems go in to streams a lot smaller. What would be best would be a separate domestic system for 38/39 discharging directly into the stream. Technically, this would work. Irish Water would need to agree and we would need to apply for a discharge license. If Irish Water agreed the Water Department should accept it and we could go back to planning and see if they would accept it. There is a major spanner in the works cost wise - this solution could cost a lot

The situation now

 The ecovillage (Sustainable Projects Ireland Limited SPIL) has full planning permission that expires 27/07/2014 on seven unsold sites and on 10/08/2014 on five unsold sites. The board will seek to have these permissions renewed. Could there be a possibility of foregoing renewal on one or more of these sites so that permission could be granted for our site? Building on SPIL’s unsold sites is very unlikely to start any time soon whereas we would start building as soon as we have a piece of paper that says we can.

 On 1 July a Dutch company will be inspecting the Cloughjordan sewage system with a view to offering a solution to the present overload. In addition, they will also look at the ecovillage waste water system. They will also look at our site with a view to coming up with a one-off stand-alone wastewater system to serve the house as an interim measure until the Cloughjordan sewage plant is upgraded. Is a stand-alone system  feasible? Would the planning officer would agree to a stand-alone waste water treatment plant for one house pending upgrade of the Cloughjordan system?

The ecovillage wastewater plant has been up and running since April. Visual inspection of the final effluent has indicated a consistently relatively clear appearance with low settleable solids. The plant was designed to provide a 25:35 / biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and total suspended solids (TSS) treatment standard. Results obtained to date show that the effluent quality is close to this standard. Samples are being taken at fortnightly intervals. On 19 May there was a meeting at the treatment plant with representatives of Irish Water, a fact-finding exercise by Irish Water concerning the hydraulic and biological loads generated by the ecovillage treatment plant and their impact on the Council’s treatment plant. The issue here seems to be the amount of flow – albeit clean – going through the Cloughjordan town plant.

Our first members' meeting

What is discussed in a members' meeting is confidential. It is interesting though to reflect on our first experience of one of these meetings, which are held monthly.

There was an agenda, each item allotted a time and for most, but not all the items, who would speak to it. It seemed quite a business like approach, and the facilitator did keep members to time. Surprisingly, given the restructuring and cash flow situation, there was no item on the sustainable financing of the project, including of key services to members living in the ecovillage. A 'friends' scheme was launched, which seems to relate the the sustainable financing issue (for the charitable work) for which brochures had been printed. Each member present was given four to distribute. At present there does not seem to be a business plan for the friends scheme - how much the scheme hopes to raise, by when, schedule for communications with friends, newsletter and so on.The issue of sustainable financing of services to ecovillage residents was not addressed.

Of the two and a half hour meeting, one and three quarter hours were devoted to a forum on community and commitment. The ecovillage is hugely confusing to newcomers - what is the community, what are people committing to when they become members - you have to be a member to build a house and live in the eco village. There's the educational charity that trades under SPIL. But SPIL also owns unsold sites in the ecovillage, although proceeds from the sales of these have to go to pay off loans from investors and banks. How VERT (Village Education Research and Training) run by Cultivate (a practical sustainability organisation based in the village and Dublin) relates to SPIL operationally and financially is not very clear to us. There is also the SPIL service company which has separate board and provides services to residents such as the district heating. The project when launched in the days of the Celtic tiger was designed to sell sites to people who could afford to build. Because of the economic crash, that didn't happen - and now the village is still only half built. With way fewer people than anticipated, the project isn't working as the founders envisaged and seems to be finding it hard to adjust to the changed circumstances.

The discussion on community and commitment aired the diversity of views. There was also a fair amount of frustration at not dealing with urgent issues. The promising business-like agenda did not deliver a clear list of actions to be taken to move forward. Two and a half hours on a sunny Saturday afternoon could maybe be spent more productively.

Planning permission refused

The reason given for not granting the planning permission was:

"The proposed development is premature due to a lack of capacity in the Cloughjordan sewage plant and the pending upgrading of the plant. Notwithstanding the fact that the on-site waste water treatment plant has been commissioned on site, and given the existing capacity of the Cloughjordan sewage scheme, it is considered that the residential development cannot be served by the on-site effluent treatment facility prior to its certification. Therefore, to grant permission for development would be prejudicial to public health."

What needs to be done is:
1. Get the waste treatment plant approved (continue the operational work and sampling the discharge from the plant)
2. Apply for planning permission for the waste treatment plant
3. Apply for a discharge licence
4. Apply to connect to the public main - it is connected and the connection was supervised by the County Council but the ecovillage never put in a formal application to do this.

At the moment, who will take these steps forward and when they may be completed is not clear.

The council's view is that ...as a result of the current situation they are unable to grant further connections to the sewer network in Cloughjordan until the matter is fully resolved or unless the applicants are able to demonstrate alternative treatment methods for individual sites that are acceptable to the Planning Authority.

We are wondering if a septic tank could be an alternative solution. 

 

Recap - the story so far

We arrived by ferry at Rosslare in Ireland in early April after driving from Salobrena to Cherbourg. What we discovered soon after we had settled into the house in the eco village was that our planning permission had been given a two month extension; so now we would not have a decision until 16 May.

We have had quite a time fnding out why. It appears to have arisen from a number of reasons but the dominant one was that the Cloughjordan sewage system was severely overloaded and the quality of the treated effluent into the river was unacceptable. Not unsurprisingly the Environment Agency and Irish Water were extremely concerned about the situation; the Environment Agency had gone so far as to blacklist North Tipperary County Council (NTCC) for this. The response of NTCC was to say that no more planning permissions would be issued in this area until the problem was solved.

For us the annoying thing was that the eco village seems to have known about this since October 2013 when the Planning Department approved the last application. But nothing was done about it.

The eco village has its own treatment plant, which was installed but has not been operating. All the sewage from the houses in the eco village was simply passing through this plant and pumped on to the Cloughjordan one where it was treated. If it had been working this would have taken 50+ houses off  the Cloughjordan sewage plant and relieved pressure on it.

Once we had arrived action started to be taken in response to our distress. The eco village plant was started up and seeded with sludge from the Cloughjordan one. That took nearly four weeks to achieve. If we were thinking that that would be OK and our permission would be forthcoming we were soon disabused of this. The water department of NTCC then said they wanted 6 months of data to assure themselves that the plant was working properly.

A meeting between council members and eco village representatives to discuss this rather took the form of a finger pointing exercise rather than looking at ways in which the two could work together to solve the problem. It wasn't just our planning permission that was at stake it was permission for 17 chalets for a local cookery school and any other residential plans for the area.

What eventually was decided at the meeting was that planning permission for the sewage treatment plant in the eco village, which had lapsed, had to be renewed and that some other paperwork had to be provided.

We have been discussing our situation with a variety of people to see how to resolve the situation. Among those we have been talking to have been an existing councillor who is retiring this year and another councillor who is seeking re-election. We have been asking them to suggest that we be granted permission with a condition that we cannot connect to the sewer system until it has been approved by NTCC. Building the house will take six to eight months and we would not be able to start until 16 June, making a total of nine months before we would be looking for a connection. This would be plenty of time in which to provide test results to show that the eco village system is functioning properly. Preliminary tests of this system are indicating that it is working extremely well. We think however that there is a degree of bad blood between NTCC and Sustainable Projects Ireland Limited (SPIL) the body responsible for the eco village.

Yesterday, we learnt from the councillor that the planning officer 'is likely to refuse' our permission. That of course is not final until the decision is published. If it is refused it means that we would have to wait six months before applying again. Then there would be two months for the planning permission and a further month for objections. So we would have a nine month wait and still no assurance that permission would be granted. Meantime, we have paid a deposit to buy our site but will not complete the purchase until permission is granted.

That in a nutshell is where things stand at the moment. Everyone in eco village sympathises with us, but that doesn't help us move forward. Our architect has been away in Germany for a couple of weeks on a course (he is back this weekend) so he has not been able to be as active in the matter as we would like. The councillor is still working on the problem (he'd like our votes - the council and EU elections are happening this month).

The other major complication is that North and South Tipperary, which currently have separate councils, are to be merged. So it seems all council employees are covering their backs and trying to demonstrate that they are upholding all the rules and regulations in an effort to hold onto their jobs.

So at present we are in limbo and won't know which way to move until 16 May - decision day. If the decision is against us then we have no choice but to return to Spain. In all probability we will spend the summer in Stavanger, Norway where C&T have an apartment where we could stay while we sort ourselves out. Apparently there is some good walking in the region so we would not be bored.

If planning is granted we will need to reorganise our accommodation. We were told the house we are renting was spartan, but that was rather an understatement. While it is very convenient because it is in the eco village itself and would make checking on construction of our new home very straightforward, it is not working too well for us at the moment. The interior is incomplete. While the upstairs is carpeted the downstairs is still the plywood sub flooring. There are no kitchen cupboards. There is a worktop (higher than normal) but no kitchen cupboards. There is a sink, stove, dishwasher and a fridge/freezer, but no laundry facilities. This latter is a particular problem. There is a shop which takes in your laundry and washes and dries it for you, but it costs and arm and a leg. So far we have managed because the owner of the hostel in the eco village has very kindly allowed us to do our laundry using his facilities. The house is very short on furniture – our bed is a futon on the floor and there is only one table in the house suitable for working and eating at.

 

All that said, the people are delightful, we love all the eco village has to offer, the surrounding countryside and exploring further afield. The eco village itself as a sustainable community has a long, long way to go - in the way it operates socially and financially. It would be interesting to be part of it. 

Eco curve balls - it's not looking good

The latest, this morning was a call from one of the councilors. He had talked to the planner and learned that she was 'not intending' to grant planning permission. His next step was to 'talk to Water' - the authorities dealing with water and sewage. Whether or not that will make a difference remains to be seen.

Things are not looking good. We are checking ferry schedules for returning to Spain. Maybe Stavanger June-July?

D(ecision)-Day 16 May

Yesterday we took our voter registration forms to first the Garda and then the Tipperary council offices in Nenagh. While in the council offices I noticed a desk for planning inquiries. So, we inquired. We'd been told that our application was incomplete. What was still missing and what should we provide? The incomplete apparently referred to the initial application in December when the site notice blew down in the gales. The current application, lodged for a second time in January is OK - complete. The application is on the planner's desk and will be decided by 16 May. Fingers crossed.

In the evening we went to a presentation on the ecovillage rescue plan, the plan to keep the village solvent. Without it, money to operate would run out. The village is first and foremost an educational charity. Unfortunately the website (www.cloughjordan.ie/ecovillage/) does not market it as such 'The ecovillage in is a new sustainable development of 114 homes and 16 live/work units closely integrated into the town of Cloughjordan.' In the community there is tension between  'ecovillage development' and charitable education. Everyone commits to 100 hours a year of voluntary work. But at present it seems voluntary work is unfocused - people can volunteer to do what they like doing, rather than committing to carry out tasks in a focused plan to carry the educational charity forward. This means that village and charitable work that needs to be done falls through the cracks. The conversation continues.  

Pass on scything the grass

With Spring well underway - our first hearing of the cuckoo this year yesterday on the Kilcommon Pilgrim Loop and swifts swooping as we sat drinking our coffee and eating our hot cross buns on returning to the car at the end of the walk -  the grass in the garden of the house we are renting is growing by the day. Our neighbours on either side have scythed their grass - but the scythe is daunting and we're sure needs a certain technique that needs to be acquired but seems a bit 'too hard' right now. The house does not come with a mower so maybe the garden is going to be a wild meadow this year.

So the fairly newly planted trees - one hazel, two birches (?) and two unidentified - don't get smothered in this wild meadow garden, we weeded round them, laid newspaper and covered the newspaper with wood chippings - a pile unearthed from under a rampant thicket of thistles. (Method found on the internet when searching for 'uses of newspaper in an organic garden'.) One weekend Telegraph is a lot of newspaper. Then we tackled the blackcurrants that had been planted in the common strip alongside where our house might be built. Encroaching couch grass wasn't giving them much of a chance but clearing it from around the young bushes was a struggle. Five bushes done so far, eight to go (when our backs recover) on that particular common strip.

The young apple trees around the village and in the 'save the varieties' orchard are a mass of blossom. Will it be a good year for apples? The fruit set on the blackcurrants is promising. Yesterday on the Kilcommon Pilgrim Loop we marvelled at the bilberries. We'll have to go back in July. (Wikipedia: In Ireland, the fruit is known as fraughan, from the Irish fraochán, and is traditionally gathered on the last Sunday in July, known as "Fraughan Sunday".) The fruit are tiny and delicate so may take a while to pick.

While we are waiting

While we are waiting we have heard many stories of planning woes experienced by eco-villagers. Whether or not eco-villagers have had more issues that concerned the planner than others, who knows. Meantime, the councillor has spoken to the planner, now returned from holiday. The possibility of putting in a septic tank has been floated. Rodney has texted the area of the plot - approximately 0.1 hectares (sites 38 and 39) - and the area of the footprint of the house - approximately 120 square metres. Is this sufficient for a septic tank? What will be the outcomes of conversations in the council corridors?

What is also interesting is that the Tipperary local council and EU elections are coming up. Electioneers knocking at the door find that we are not yet resident in the village and that leads to questions about why we're here, and the whole planning story. Candidates for the council are seeking details. We are hoping their interest and any kind of involvement that follows is not going to muddy the waters or lead the planner into feeling pressured in any way. What has also happened is that planning permission for a property adjoining the ecovillage has just been granted. Is this a good sign? Are the council now not so concerned about overloading the Cloughjordan sewage plant now that the ecovillage plant is working and the discharge tested over the last three weeks is clean? If not, the suggestion (in jest?) was to call the 'race card' if permission is refused - that a local had been granted permission but foreigners not. Very strange thought. The two cases are not quite the same, the local asked for planning permission for a renovation and extension (to an albeit currently unoccupied property) whereas our request for permission is for a new build. Roll on 16 May when we hope for a decision one way or another. (I have been looking for properties for sale in Devon.)

Not being too good at waiting, we've taken the time to do some walking and exploring - to the south, the Silvermine Mountains, to the west the Burren and Cliffs of Moher, and to the north, Fairymount, Birr and Kinnitty. There is much to enjoy. The trees coming into leaf, violets, primroses, cowslips abound. Drifts of bluebells in the woods. And the ecovillage people - all keeping their fingers crossed for us. And given freedom to help ourselves to a gardener's abundance of allotment rhubarb.

Doolin Pier (boats for the Aran Islands), Galway

 View from Fairymount, North Tipperary

 Pilgrim Loop, Kilcommon, Tipperary

 Cliffs of Moher, Galway

 Knockanree Wood Loop, Silvermine Mountains, Tipperary

 Lehinch, Galway

 Bluebells, Kinnitty-Glinsk Castle Loop, Offaly

 Birr Castle Demense, hornbeam cloister, Offaly

 Lough Derg Way near Dromineer, Tipperary

 Ecovillage impromptu community dinner Easter Monday

The day after building was meant to start

Returning from the hostal with the bag of laundry Pa had very kindly put through his washer and dryer for us - lacking a washing machine in the house - there was a wonderful aroma of baking bread from the bakery next door. Mouthwatering.

Up to the allotments with the compost bucket. The chickens scoot over to see if there is anything for them.

The beeches in Knockanacree Wood are gradually coming into leaf. A mist of green spreading day by day.

A cat has been scratching in the carefully weeded herb bed - grrrrrr.

We have been here two weeks today and have made zilch progress ... except on Plan B.

Today was the day building was meant to start

... but we are still in limbo.

Met with Liam in the Wooden Sppon in Killaloe yesterday for capuccinos, raspberry scones, carrot cake and what to do next. Decided the best tack would be to talk to the councillor and planner.

Back in the ecovillage, started weeding the bed near the Welcome Centre. Te couch grass is vicious, smothering the blackcurrant bushes. Hard weeding for a couple of hours cleared just a couple of square metres. It's a good spot for chatting with passers by.

Wound up the Easter weekend with the first community street party of the year.

Rodney spoke to the councillor and will again next week to arrange a meeting with the planner. It seems the planner likes to meet applicants in person.

Easter Saturday and Sunday

Amazing Easter weather. Woke to clear sunny skies and ground frost both yesterday and today.  Yesterday the first priority was to  get to Centra at the same time as the delivery from the woodfired bakery. The choice was a walnut loaf and a wholemeal.

Next we had been offered some chests and storage baskets, so round to collect them. Diedre and Owen had a roomful of items from Diedre's mother's house and offered to loan anything that could be useful. We've now a large saucepan and two garden director's chairs as well. It is great to have unpacked the suitcases - or most of them - into the chests of drawers and to have been able to clear what was on the kitchen counters into the baskets. And to sit out in the sun in the director's chairs for coffee and hot cross buns. Everyone is very, very kind.

On Cloughjordan main street there was a small street market - just three stalls with home baked soda bread and cakes, jams, local cheese, fresh vegetables and plants - blackcurrant bushes, herbs, lettuce. So frustrating to be in limbo and having to hold off from starting an allotment.

The children were part of the 'clean village' day, picking up litter, the best team winning a choclate bunnies but with plenty of eggs and sweets for the runners up (and passers by) too.

After  a woodfired baked walnut loaf-based lunch and the weekend papers, off the find Fairymount Hill for a walk and a view. the directions wer take the road to Knockanacree Wood but go straight on. We were looking for a hill with a big cross on top (the country is gently rolling) and did eventually find it. In a week or so the walk up through the woods will be a mass of bluebells.  At the summit, the  views were worth the climb - Lough Derg out to the west.

Easter Sunday, yet another gorgeous day. Set out for the Silvermine Mountains the other side of Nenagh for a 4.5 km loop walk in a brisk chilly wind. Silvermines was packed with the cars of people at the Easter Sunday morning service when we returned but we didn't find a much needed coffee shop and headed for Dromineer on the eastern shore of Lough Derg. Great coffee in the Lake Cafe then another 9.6 km loop walk, part of the Lough Derg way, partly on country roads and a short stretch across fields by the lake shore.

Arriving home, Met Duncan on his way to see us with more on the meeting last Thursday which he attended. He reiterated that the village sewage system put into operation two months ago has now had all its problems sorted and is now working. From next week he will be taking daily readings of the dissolved oxygen in the discharge. Quite how the authorities will view these - acceptable or not adequate- and how many months readings they will require is not clear. Offered to help any way we could (paperwork etc) but there does not seem to be much we can do.

Tomorrow we meet with Liam, hopefully we can plan a strategy for a meeting with the planner the week after Easter.

Good Friday

Warm and sunny. Weeded the herb bed. Quite a job digging out as much of the couch grass as we could. The marjoram, chives and sage are doing well and there is a tiny rosemary. Sowed rocket, coriander, fennel, lettuce and parsley in the gaps between the herbs.

The children next door enjoyed a water fight and Rodney said there were kids in the stream too. Lunch outside then a walk in Knockanacree Wood. Back through the allotments, family at work mowing the paths and preparing their plot -  coming away with wonderful rhubarb.

The news of the meeting with the council yesterday seems not to move us any further forward. The Cloughjordan sewage plant is in breach (blacklisted) and the council is not therefore in a position to grant any planning at all. Irish Water and the Environment Protection Agency are now part of the scenario. The ecovillage sewage plant is now operating properly and the discharge is equivalent to discharge from just one house. What has to be done though is to apply for a discharge licence (providing the council with test results), apply for a sewer connection and renew the temporary planning for the sewage plant which seems to have expired and not been renewed.

We meet with our architect Liam on Monday. Liam is as always very positive (there's always a chance) and we'll  arrange for us all to meet with the planner when she returns from Easter holidays. The extension of our planning application expires 16 May and it seems it cannot be extended again. Would it be possible to grant planning conditional on connecting to the ecovillage system until a discharge licence has been granted? Would it be possible to put in a septic tank, compost toilets? So many unknowns and the planner's hands may be tied by all the other parties involved. If the planning is refused what then? Perhaps return to Spain until all is resolved.

Meantime, this evening there is a community meal followed by 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. Rodney, making the most of cooking facilities and ingredients, knocked up some Madhur Jaffrey lentils and spinach).

There's always a chance

We've been here a week and it's been a roller coaster of hope and despair, conflicting information and no clear way forward. Living the ecovillage concept is challenging in many respects. The people are great. The systems fragile and disfunctional. Last evening there was a meeting of the board to consider a rescue plan to enable the village to become a viable operation. We await news of how this was recieved and will move forward.

Last evening, we listened to Liam Ryan's story of how he beat stage 4 cancer of the head in the Nenagh Arts Centre. Compared to what Liam overcame a planning setbacks seem less important. His message, there's always a chance no matter how bad the news - and our situation is by no means life threatening.

Day 7

Today's update is that the planner is on holiday for two weeks.

The meeting this week is for the Ecovillage to inform the council that the sewage treatment is working and to apologise. The system has to have at least 40 houses connected. Up until last October the ecovillage did not have 40 houses built.

We and our architect will meet to talk about our plan as soon as the planner returns. We hope that planning will be granted with the condition that our sewerage connection won't be made until the water authorities are satisfied that the ecovillage sewage system works.

On another matter, there are steep rises in the district heating standing charges to cover standing charges on unsold sites. The ecovillage does not yet have a sustainable operational budget to provide and maintain services.

I love walking round the woodlots and farm - in the morning, after lunch and after dinner. The rolling fields, old beeches and clouds of hawthorn are restorative.

We talked last night of alternatives. There is comfort in making plan B, and C, and ...

Day 6

Our architect dropped in this morning. It was great to see him. He brought new elevations with the porch on the front door and balcony on the bedroom window. I can't wait to see the house built.

We talked about the strategy for the meeting on Thursday. Would it be useful for us to attend the meeting to show we are OK people and would prefer to start building rather than head back to Spain and forget the whole thing? Best to ask the advice of the ecovillage delegation.

When asked, the advice was that the meeting would not discuss our planning as the delegation does not represent us even though the issue directly affects our plans. The delegation will phone us to let us know the outcome of the meeting.

Our architect says leave it with him. And 'never give up'. Have faith.

We met another ecovillager who told us her story. For her apartment in a block of four, she endured a two-year delay because planning was refused the first time round. At this point she had already given up her  job, had rented accommodation nearby and was paying a mortgage. Hearing of our situation brought back how she felt when she heard her planning permission had been refused.

At the moment we seem to have an extension, meaning that the planning has not actually been refused. If that happens we would have to start all over again.

Ecocracking up?

Day 5

The Sunday before Easter. He's baking hot cross buns in a strange kitchen - very brave. I'm taking the easy route making red Thai curry (for dinner). Took the accumulated compostable waste up to the allotment compost heap. Potatoes, red mustard (super peppery), coriander, pot marigolds, winter purslane (tastes like grass but soft like lettuce)  flourishing in the group polytunnel. Tomatoes just planted. Folk have been busy on some of the allotments, weeding, the soil tilled - garlic on its way, broad beans emerging.

The district heating guru popped round and checked the settings - all seems fine. He seems optimistic about the planning permission. The house is warm, much warmer than our place in Spain.

Walked out towards Borrisokane in the afternoon sunshine. Drifts of hawthorn blossom in the hedges. Everyone seems to have mowed their acres of lawns. Some gardens have gorgeous displays of spring daffodils, tulips, wallflowers, primulas ... In the information window near Centra there are details of all the meitheals planned to beautify the town and ecovillage over the next few weeks.

On the cultural front, tonight there will be a film club showing of 'Take the money and run' in the Heritage Centre.

Checking out possible walks over Easter and ferries back to Spain in the event building cannot start soon. An emotional ups and down day.

Day 4

The weekend.  Woke to Irish mist.  First headed to Centra for a wild garlic sourdough loaf.  Then to Nenagh to find the launderette and explore the places that had been recommended to us. First stop the launderette, then a wander round,  then  coffee  and  a chocolate muffin  to share. Next to Woodies where we found supports for the shelves for the wardrobe.

Returned for a late lunch - great wild garlic sourdough with the rest of the pumpkin soup. After lunch the sun emerged and brought people out of their houses. "If you need anything - just send an email to the ecovillage mailing list. That's what other people who rented the house did." If our planning pemission is granted and we stay on we'll take that advice. "Don't buy anything new." We hadn't planned to buy anything until we see what will fit in the new house. If we can borrow to see us through that will be great.

Set out to find out about the planning permission. Bumped into the very person who could tell us. Thursday there will be a meeting. The ecovillage sewage plant is working well. However, the planners are asking for six months readings on the outflow. The request to be put at the meeting will be for conditional planning so that building can go ahead. By the time the house is built the six months will be up. The cookery school also have a planning request in for holiday chalets. Apparently, the  town sewage is overloaded and the ecovillage plant would provide extra capacity. The mayor and the chamber of commerce support the request for conditional planning as holiday visitors and new residents will benefit the town. Everyone is hopeful that it will be granted. What is so frustrating for us is that when  another potential buyer was granted planning permission last October, the council said that no further permissions would be given to the ecovillage until the sewage plant was approved. But we didn't know this (and why we were not informed of is a mystery) so it was a bombshell when our permission was not passed because this had not been done. Why the ecovillage did nothing with a sale of a site in the pipeline and planning permission for it submitted is a further mystery.

This week we were meant to be laying out the site, deciding where the house would be placed, so that building could start immediately after Easter. Even if conditional planning is granted on Thursday, building cannot start until a month after that.

Our Plan B if  permission is withheld is to return to Spain from whence we can hope and wait from afar. That would be really disappointing. But I am not good at waiting and uncertainty. We would like to get on with life and it i in limbo at the moment.

Meantime,  we gather (it has to be said from conversation, not any formal source) that the ecovillage has three to six months before it may become insolvent - not generating enough income to cover expenses. While sales of sites could delay insolvency it is hard to see how sites can be sold if prospective buyers are not assured of getting planning permission to build because the ecovillage sewage system has not been approved. A sustainable ecovillage has to be financially as well as socially and environmentally sustainable. So much international development now focuses on good governance as a prerequisite for sustainability. As another frustrated potential ecovillager site buyer said in an email "... The ecovillage is a great idea. But the joy has gone out of it". Some ecovillagers we know are working very, very hard to make it work.  Our family and friends are dubious, they are apprehensive that this is all an enormous risk. Right now we too are wondering, where will it end, for the ecovillage, for us? Will Maundy Thursday 2014 see us on Plan A, starting building in May, or Plan  B, returning to Spain and waiting to see what happens?

Day 3

A clear frosty morning but rather down about the uncertainties around the planning permission. A few tears. Into the work routine to get over the dumps. Learned that there is a launderette in Nenagh, that the boiler room door can be left open to let the heat circulate. Offer from the neighbour with the green roof to share garbage bins (splitting the council charges).

Cheered up after visits from neighbours on both sides offering hints on where to shop in Nenagh, the bread club, the farm club, the film club, the buyers' group, meat, eggs, the library, the Makery (more on this later) ... We plan to check out what Nenagh has to offer at the weekend - and find a bread knife, potato peeler, doodahs to support the shelves in the wardrobe so we can unpack some clothes ...

The bread we know is wonderful (more of yesterday's gift loaf with pumpkin soup for lunch) and there are heaps more kinds to try: sourdough, multigrain, rosemary and olive oil, rye sourdough, borrodinsky (spelling?) with coriander, spelt wholemeal, wild garlic sourdough ... Deliveries are Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and it's possible to have a four-week rolling order of different types of bread. Coming up in the autumn the baker will offer pizza (wood-fired) evenings and bakery courses. Cultivating and caring for your own sourdough starter for example. I wonder if there are going to be wood fired hot cross buns?

More cheering up. An email from our architect saying planning should be due soon as the sewage system is operational. We'll meet with him and our builder next week. Fingers crossed.

Day 2

Woke to sunshine. The internet works - hooray. Checked work emails. Started on the Asia climate change report. Rather spaced out from travelling. Not quite as quick to bounce back as we used to be! Broke to shop for essentials in Nenagh. On the way out of the house our neighbour said hi and that her husband the wood-fired baker is baking us a loaf. Wow. We look forward to that. When we returned with our groceries the baker handed us a brown paper bag with a warm loaf - perfect for lunch, so good. No news on the planning permission (more on this story later). A couple more hours on the climate change report. Then scrubbing and cleaning and finding somewhere to put things. The house is warm. The boiler room is boiling. We shower in there rather than upstairs in the bathroom. The district heating guru is going to come to have a look at the heating and help us check whether the settings are correct.

 Watery sunset behind the hawthorn in bloom. Note to selves. Do not have radiators with fins that catch the dust. One pot dinner to eat with the wood-fired baked bread - chicken and apple with carrots, bacon, turnip, onion and fresh thyme from the garden. Totally knackered. Making plans B and C in case the planning permission is not forthcoming soon. I do not think we can live too long in an unfinished house, we are not totally ecocrackers.

Day 1

Arrived late afternoon in Cloughjordan. Long trip from Salobrena via San Sebastian, Nantes, Cherbourg, Irish Ferries and Rosslare. Welcomed with fresh baked muffins, milk and tea bags from our neighbour with the green roof. The house we're renting is not quite finished. No news on the planning permission.

What led up to this.

In 2002 while working in the United Arab Emirates at an international agricultural research centre and post-secondary educational system respectively, we visited my sister and her husband who had bought a place on the Granada coast as a home base and for their retirement while they were working in international schools around the world. The idea appealed to us and we ought a small apartment in Salobrena. Several years later, in 2007, after working in Tajikistan and Kyrgystan we retired from international development work and 'settled' in Salobrena. As a foil to apartment life we bought what many Spaniards have, a cortijo in the country where they go at weekends and where they often grow vegetables and fruit.

Spanish dwellings are not built for warmth in winter and cool in summer. We viewed many many places looking for a place that met these criteria and that would allow the inside-outside living style suited to the Spanish climate - climate-friendly in other words. Our search took us to a Ronda villa with two hectares of vines that had promise but also had a high-speed railway planned along one boundary. Nearer to Salobrena we found a south-facing 40-year old small villa with a 1000 m2 plot and amazing sea views. We contacted a  Granada company specialising in ecoarchitecture with a view to retrofitting. This part of Spain is tectonically unstable and many houses and roads have cracked and subsided. A geotechical survey, the architect's design and costing for a knockdown and ecorebuild suggested that the investment required was sadly unwarranted for this site. A more appropriate option would be to underpin the existing house with micropiles and retrofit, investing sufficient to render the house comfortable and the garden productive.

In August 20134, we searched for ecohouses on the internet to compare the cost of the proposed new build in Spain with exisiting ecohouses elsewhere. The search turned up Cloughjordan, an ecovillage in Eire. To investigate further, we flew to Ireland, staying in a self-catering house in Portumna as the Django's ecohostel was full. Every Saturday and Sunday there is a tour, which we joined, spoke to residents, a builder, architect and were invited to a community dinner - a regular Friday evening happening.

Throughout September we corresponded by email and phone with site sales in the ecovillage. The architect produced nitial drawings and the builder indicated that it could be built within a budget we could afford. We made an offer for two sites to allow orientation of the house for maximum solar gain.

In October we flew again to Ireland for another week, staying in the ecohostel, taking another tour of the village, the Makery, theHeritage Centre, meeting with residents and being invited into their homes, and enjoying a film at film night and another community dinner. The architect's preliminary drawings looked good and we met with the ecovillage legal advisor about the MUD (multi-development) Act. It does apply to the ecovillage we found out later.

In the following months, October to January, our solicitor corresponded with SPIL's solicitors. The planning application was lodged 6 December, the ecovillage membership fees paid, the ecocharter signed. The winter storms soaked the planning application to the extent that it became illegible. The council demanded that it be relodged, which it was on 20 January. Meantime we corresponded with another prospective buyer on issues concerning the purchase of the sites and how the MUD Act affects the ecovillage.

In February we flew to Ireland, again staying at Django's, meeting with residents, being invited to look round their houses, hearing perspectives on village finances, the development of the community and purchasing processes. At this stage according to our solicitor we needed a development agreement from the SPIL office before exchanging contracts. In Killaloe, we met with Liam and Eddie in the Wooden Spoon and over capuccinos and raspberry scones tweaked the design, talked windows and the colour of the house (!). In Nenagh we looked at both wooden and aluclad windows. The date for starting building was set for 20 April, allowing two months of granting planning permission and the one month waiting period subsequently.

It was a shock, come 20 March, to hear that planning had not be approved. Fortunately we had not finalised the purchase of the sites.

The house we've rented.