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?