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.