There are many people who live rural lives on low incomes that cannot afford to live in a house due to the ever increasing rent and property prices here in Herefordshire. Rural communities in existence right now are expensive places to be that often lack true sense of community due to modern lifestyles that have little true connection to the land. I am not referring to farming community here. Even people who can afford houses and land in rural areas can be isolated. For those that cannot afford to rent a home they often end up living in caravans or sheds 'hiding out' on other peoples properties so as not to be seen or complained about by the neighbours thus not getting found out by planners.This is no way to live. These people, sometimes single parents with children, are living their lives at a disadvantage, it is not good for mental health and general wellbeing. Meanwhile other land owners/farmers are able to get economic development grants to build housing and cabins for holiday lets. Whilst the UK is struggling to house people due to the housing crisis we are in do you think this is fair?
Holiday lets do not add to existing communities. They take.And they dump and awful lot of rubbish whilst they are doing it!
What rural areas desperately need is for council planning policy to change for Herefordshire. There is a need for people on low rural incomes to be able to live on the land, working with it to create a well designed low impact off grid homes they can live in within their means . This type of living not only offers affordable solutions whilst adding to existing communities by regeneration of rural areas but it means that the land can be regenerated into healthy ecosystems by diversity within the parameters of permacultre design systems. This protects the land and makes it ecologically diverse and rich whilst giving people a chance to live and work locally. For some people it is the difference in life becoming something that is doable or not.
There are some good examples of Low impact development communities all over the world including Wales UK- Lammas is one example.Tinkers Bubble another.
We are in a time of stretched resources and it is imperative that local councils think of solutions that will be a good way forward for the health and well being of the people they represent and the land that housing is built on. This is true democracy.
Currently there is a proposal for The Future Housing of Herefordshire. In it the document expresses a type of housing that will be passive, it may be ecological and fitting in with laws to do with the way we build houses in UK , but does this proposal address the issue of what is truly affordable? Will it address the promotion of what makes a healthy community?Will it answer the needs of the people that cannot afford high rent and that do not have capital to buy into the housing ladder?
Right now we need to be able to build affordable,vernacular, low impact homes in rural areas that are ecologically integrated with the land to create healthy communities. The policy that was created by Simon Fairly is TAN6 . This is what Herefordshire council must write into The Future Housing for Herefordshire document to be democratically fair and representative of all people across the county.

This ePetition ran from 12/01/2022 to 21/06/2022 and has now finished.

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