Land and nature stewardship
Good health starts with good food. Growing food will be a fundamental corner-stone of the village. We anticipate being able to cater for 50% of the village food needs using organic and biodynamic principles. Small animals may be kept as these contribute to the process of plant growing. Animals may also be killed for food following correct animal welfare procedures. The biodiversity of the soil and the mycelium fungal layer will be of paramount importance and we will seek guidance from people who have been working in this area, such as Matt Dunwell from Ragmans Farm.
We will consider using aquaponics , a low input high yield technology for farming for fish and some food production. See Bioaqua just outside Bristol as an example.
Regeneration of the rural environment
We believe that it is possible to (re)create settlements that can directly support existing or new small farms, where reconnection of people with the countryside and each other can regenerate the rural environment, rural communities and the rural economy.
There is support for the concept, as can be seen with The RSA’s Food Farming and Countryside Commission Inquiry document “Our future in the Land”
We will be guided in any planning applications by Planner James Shorten of Regenerative Settlements - “Now the focus has to shift to regenerating the biocapacity and biodiversity of the Earth if we are to secure our own future.”
To this end we see the community including:
Regenerative integrated agriculture
Agroforestry and nature based forestry
Organic and biodynamic agriculture
Wild harvesting/foraging
Forest gardening
Seed saving
Our intention is to buy or rent from the landowner or Community Land Trust in perpetuity, in a way which provides security and financial benefit for both our community and the land guardian.
We are looking to ‘land’ the community in the Bristol/South West area.
We have spoken with builders who build to Passive House standards. These homes can be built using carbon sequestering materials and, more importantly, are comfortable to live in and cheap to run. If you looked at them from the air using a heat sensing camera you wouldn't see them.
The buildings will include:
Biotecture/biomimicry
Natural material buildings
Low/zero EMF wiring infrastructure
Rainwater harvesting and treatment using UV or ozone. Waste water dealt with on site and used as an input for farming
Buildings that can be upgraded easily with easy access to wiring and plumbing
Accessibility and safety in mind for the elderly and young children and those who have a temporary or permanent disability.
The village will contain hubs of homes ranging from detached family homes, terraced houses, flats and tiny homes. All homes will be built to minimum Passivhaus standards, harnessing solar energy and storing or selling this to the grid.
As well as homes there will be communal space for work, meetings or events, shop etc.
Communal space and eating area
We envisage a large, harmonious community space for gathering, eating, communal cooking, working, education and events. The shared cooking area will be vegetarian only, whilst people will be free to cook and eat whatever they want in their own homes.
Eco friendly, sustainable cleaning products will be used in the communal areas.
We intend to develop a community shop on site, supplied by an ethical wholesaler such as Essential Trading or Suma, which will sell items such as plant based cleaning products and food staples that are not grown on site. This would encourage residents to use products that would support the clean environmental infrastructure in the village.
We will be aiming to be as close to a zero waste village as we can be, so landfill waste will be kept to a minimum, ideally zero. Recycling options and waste management on site will inform our purchasing decisions. We won't be able to compost oil based plastics and products made from them. So, for example, any non washable nappies and sanitary products available to purchase on site would need to be made from highly biodegradable plant based content. Human and animal waste will be processed/utilised onsite. If you want to be inspired about how zero waste is possible, put “zero waste” into Youtube and find out more.
If we need to have a refuse collection, residents will take waste and recycling to a central point. We may also consider a pay as you go option where residents are charged by the sack of waste/recycling. This is how businesses deal with their waste and puts the onus on the person to take responsibility for reducing their waste by implementing 'Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle' into their purchasing decisions.
We envisage a village where our energy supply is created from within and we can therefore become self-sustainable and reduce our carbon footprint and energy bill, with a view to utilising developments as they arise. Battery storage will be used on site. We will look at Bio-gas options that take the waste from farming and humans, to heat homes and greenhouses on site.
A Car pool of electric and or hybrid vehicles will operate in a similar manner to car clubs that already exist.
The aim is for no cars within the village as a general rule. There will be exceptions to this. The communal areas may require access for deliveries and maintenance and provision made for disabled cars/access. If this is a fairly large development a method of transport from the outskirts of the site/disabled parking to the living/working area for those with strength/mobility/health issues will need to be agreed.
Or, structurally, the village might also be arranged in a number of smaller living zones, within which cars are not allowed but round the edge of which cars are allowed, to make the distances more manageable.
Communal washing machines will be available on site. Tools, bikes, lawn mowers, toys, books and other items we use occasionally or don't need anymore can be pulled together with a library system.
Our community will consider:
Appropriate technology for the land and time, that can be upgraded.
Bicycle transport
Refuse, reduce, reuse and recycling built into the structure of how we live so we can aim to be a zero waste community.
Loneliness is one of the crises facing modern living. We envisage and will value a multi-generational community, where everyone is viewed as having something to offer and everyone is valued for what they bring to the community. The exchange between older people and younger people will be actively encouraged as this allows for cross pollination of knowledge and a sharing community.
We want older generations to be valued and will create structures where older people can give to the community and share the wisdom and skills they have acquired over their lifetime.
Diversity of the community
This is an eco village community. We will welcome all human beings who share and commit to the values stated here, whatever race, gender, age or creed they come from, whatever sexual orientation they may have.
Parenting - 'it takes a village'
Our community will ensure that children and nurturing are at its heart.
We envisage that experienced parents living in the community will be on hand to share advice if required, so that support is always there for new parents to make informed decisions for their children. We envisage a support network in the community for those parents who choose to home/unschool their children. If enough people want to make it happen there may be an opportunity to set up a small homeschooling community on site.
People, communication and community
At the core of the community will be an open, transparent communication system, built upon principles of safety and shared understanding. Very simply it can be broken down to ‘speaking from the heart and listening from the heart’.
We envisage that the community would be a learning one, where we are continually learning and growing together, underpinned by our shared ethos and an understanding of the importance of valuing and respecting our differences and what each individual contributes.
We recognise that we will all come to the community with different filters, perceptions and experiences which can easily lead to unclear communications.
U Lab is one of many examples which could be used as a model for all community members to participate in to give us a shared language which is easy to understand and use.
We will adopt a system such as Holocracy or Sociocracy as a way to manage the build and day to day organisation of the village when people are living there.
At the heart of our community will be a commitment to shared decision making. We recognise that whilst not everyone will want to be involved in making decisions, it is envisaged that all communications will be transparent, offering everyone in the community an opportunity to have a say on decisions being made.
Where there are matters of expertise, then within this structure there will be designated people/groups who will take a lead on these decisions.
We envisage a community where people contribute some of their time (around 3 hours per week) to the benefit of the community, this would be for growing of foods, maintenance of the land, maintaining facilities, contributing to communal welfare, rubbish removal, maintaining a shared equipment library and shared outdoor spaces. We also aim to encourage the principles of a Resource-Based Economy at the core of the village and recognise that some, more than others, will give their time to make things happen just because they can.
We recognise that this may not always be possible for every member of the community but it is a shared value of contributing some of our time to the benefit of the whole in whatever ways are natural for us, or as an opportunity to learn a new skill.
If the community deems necessary we can create a measurement system for this, similar to how LETS schemes used to operate.
There will be a commitment to conflict management processes for residents, management and contractors and all prospective residents and contractors would be expected to sign up to this. Regular facilitated meetings for residents and those in the decision making procedure will be put in place.
We envisage a support network coming together in the community to help share knowledge, prevent illness and support natural, complementary healing.
Kindness and connection at the core
Just as nature creates symbiotic and harmonious systems, we aim to create a community that moves consciously towards kindness, connection, collaboration and wholeness.
There is no religion at the core of this community, other than a profound reverence for the Earth, a shared sense of spirituality and a compassion and respect for all community members and for all of life. Residents will be free to follow whatever path they choose. There will not be any formal religious doctrines followed by the community. Anyone is welcome but we won’t be building special features to accommodate anyone's particular religious requirements within the village. The community will be built with sacred geometry and biomimicry design in mind.
Mind, body and spirit disciplines
We envisage that we will have a shared space within the village where we can host wellbeing classes and other mind, body and spirit classes to maintain the health and wellbeing of the community.
Where possible we will create structures to support parents to grow happy healthy children, including supporting new mothers to babymoon. For example, a redirection of contribution hours from other members of the community as recognition of this being a time when added support is needed.
Dying with dignity and burials
Our village will support the choice to die with dignity at home if this is their choice. We will collaborate with death doulas to help give support and from within the community to the person dying as well as their family through the grieving process, by accessing important rites of passage and end of life celebration and ceremony if chosen.
We support the choice for eco burials and have access to people within the local vicinity who specialise in this area. We would also look to have a site within a natural woodland area for natural burial or ashes to be scattered and a space for quiet reflection.
We anticipate that the community will contain a higher than average number of people who will work from home. We also welcome people bringing their businesses to the community where they can benefit from the help of others and also share the benefits.
This is a rental only model. Homes will not be bought and sold. The housing market has become increasingly fractured, resulting in many people, including those on average earnings often unable to find a property they can afford to live in.
As a rental only model, we can:
Offer residents the opportunity to have long term housing security within high quality homes and at a cost below market value, aiming to be on a par with local housing benefit allowances.
Ensure the community can be home to people from a variety of economic backgrounds.
Protect residents from uncertainty in the housing market
Allow for easy movement between dwellings when personal circumstances change.
Ethical investment will also be possible by residents and non residents who can purchase bonds in the development itself and receive an agreed percentage return. We will structure this with an organisation such as Triodos bank or a similar ethical bond investment organisation. We see this as being able to invest in part of the community rather than your own individual house. Equally, if residents have capital to invest which they would have invested into their home they could choose to invest that capital elsewhere into something that they believe in and /or makes business sense for them.
We are looking at how we can set up a Community Benefits Society. As explained in the video from Stockwood Community Benefits Society. Instead of business units, the homes are income generators. But as the whole community owns the Community Benefits Society money is kept within the community, with the expectation of loan and interest repayments if there are any. Because we are the developers and the homes that we build are not sold, we are not wholly subject to valuations based on the current market system of delivering houses as an investment. Rent can be set at a rate that repays loans and is affordable on housing benefit rates.
