Grace Hammond
IT SEEMED a perfect plan for an area of outstanding natural beauty such as the Yorkshire Dales.
Company director Howard Buffett was sure his grass-roofed house would win the approval of environmentally-minded planners.
Instead he has found himself at loggerheads with the National Park authority, which rejected his scheme only to agree to a similar design for its own offices.
Mr Buffett described the authority's decision to block plans for the three-bedroom home at Hardraw, near Hawes, as "unjust" and has vowed to fight the move at a public inquiry.
His house has been designed by world-renowned architect Dr Arthur Quarmby, who 30 years ago built his own acclaimed earth-sheltered home, Underhill, in the Peak District National Park.
But Yorkshire Dales officials insist they were right to refuse Mr Buffett permission because his earth house would be outside Hardraw settlement boundaries and "not in keeping" with the rest of the village.
However, they say the authority's own turf-covered building, part of a new office complex at Bainbridge, is within planning policy because it is built on an "employment site" – a former North Yorkshire County Council depot.
Ironically, this scheme had detractors of its own. One local resident described the earth-sheltered element of the office design as "a bunker" while another likened it to the home of TV's Teletubbies.
Mr Buffett said: "It's unbelievable that they gave themselves planning permission for their own earth-sheltered building, but turned down my application without
the planning committee
even bothering to see the site."
He added: "What's wrong with putting Hardraw on the map? It seems the National Park have one set of rules for themselves and one set for the rest of us."
He disputed the planners' claim that his proposed house – to be built in a former agricultural yard – was outside the village planning boundary, one of the arguments that would be made at the planning inquiry being held in July. And he insisted it would not be visually intrusive.
"Because the members of the planning committee didn't visit the site, I just don't think they appreciated how low the house sits in the landscape, how little visual impact it has and what a huge improvement there will be on the site," he said.
"It would be literally built into the landscape, which surrounds, insulates and protects it; and, of course, makes it virtually invisible to the outside world.
"The garden and the roof of the house would be covered with wild flowers and local grasses. It should be a haven for birds, insects and small mammals and should look absolutely beautiful."
The National Park authority's ecologist, Dr Tim Thom, acknowledged the building's ecological credentials, describing the proposal as "an excellent example of a development where ecological issues are an integral consideration within the design".
Although the Hawes and High Abbotside parish council voted to oppose Mr Buffett's plans, its chairman and another councillor have since publicly backed the scheme and there were seven letters of support from Dales residents.
Coun Diane Horner said: "In my view, to find a way of providing housing which is totally self-sufficient and eco-friendly and does not have any impact upon the landscape must be considered as a very important step forward.
"This scheme will significantly enhance the area in and around where its construction is proposed, creating an area of traditional hay meadow where there now lies rubble and concrete."
Council chairman and National Park authority member John Blackie spoke out in favour of the development at a National Park planning committee.
Mr Buffett said: "There are clearly-defined planning laws which the National Park should have adhered to, but they simply haven't taken into account all the positive aspects of my proposal and at the planning appeal in July I'm going to prove that."
The National Park's head of planning, Peter Watson, said there was nothing in its policy against earth-sheltered buildings and stressed two years ago it approved a similar design for an extension to the visitor centre at the White Scar Caves, near Ingleton.
"The primary problem for Mr Buffett's proposed earth house is its locality. It falls outside the village boundary, where housing development cannot be permitted in anything other than exceptional circumstances, where essential need is demonstrated," he said.
The authority's building conservation officer, Mark Stephenson, defended the authority's own scheme.
"This is something that combines tradition but moves things on 30 or 40 years and puts Bainbridge on the map. I think that is what everybody wants – the National Park moving into the future and taking the people of the National Park with it," he said.