Eco-friendly development moves a step closer after plans backed

The application for four "live/work" units on the outskirts of Walkington, near Beverley, which aim to put the region in the vanguard of sustainable design, was approved by the eastern area planning sub committee.

The development is set to be the first in the region to attain level six of the code for sustainable homes, which will only become mandatory in new homes in 2016, if ratified by the strategic planning committee next month.

Industrial buildings used for Nicky Dunning's agricultural engineering business on Coppleflat Lane will be demolished to make way for the homes, which will generate their own electricity from wind turbines, collect rainwater and use solar power to heat water.

The scheme even includes a "trod" – a footpath made from wood chippings – running alongside the main road so people can walk into the village safely.

Mr Dunning, who can trace his family history on the business site back to his great-great-great grandfather Robert Dunning (1747 -1828) who was a farmer and cornmiller, praised the "forward-looking" committee, for backing the "zero carbon" scheme. The second of two mills on the site was demolished back in the 1960s.

He said: "We certainly have to save oil and make better use of our resources. This is absolutely an ideal site – this is a proven wind generating site."

Mr Dunning, who has a business supplying refurbished agricultural machinery to East Africa, said he had drawn inspiration from how people who lived there had to conserve scanty resources. He would not be developing the site himself but would continue to live at Mill Cottage.

The south-facing houses will be built on a "Beco" system which uses polystyrene blocks with a concrete core that sucks up the heat in the summer and slowly releases it back.

The roofs will be covered with a living carpet of the sedum plant, and each property will be able to store 6,500 litres of rainwater for flushing toilets, washing machines and watering the garden.

Heat will come from a ground source heat pump which use pipes buried in the garden to extract heat from the ground, with any extra top-ups needed provided by the smallest type of woodburning stove. The 12-metre vertical access wind turbines – which spin round like a toilet roll on a tube – are far more efficient than the usual wind turbines and are supposed to be quieter than a tree.

They also will supply excess energy into the National Grid, which could bring in as much as 1,500 a year for the householder following a Government announcement of "feed-in" tariffs for people who produce their own renewable energy.

House-building is undergoing a revolution as the new code for sustainable homes starts to bite and urban designer Phillip Boaden of Weel-based Kobi Co said developments like the one at Walkington were needed as testing grounds.

He said: "These are really the Formula One houses that we need to test so that we can apply the technology on domestic models down the line."

Mr Boaden added: "They aren't going to be affordable houses and we accept that, but you have to start somewhere.

"This technology has not been put together in this form and tested like this in the domestic market."

The application still has to go to the strategic planning committee as it is a departure from policies. Planners had recommended refusal on the grounds that it is in open countryside and outside village development limits.