The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: libbil on January 19, 2010, 10:22:12 pm
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Hi. We are Libby and Neil, and we are looking into the possibility of having a smallholding at the moment (has been our dream for a while and we are pretty much ready now to take the plunge). We are hoping to gain a bit of knowledge from those of you with lots of experience.
We have a couple of plots in mind just now, and we wondered if anyone has experience of a smallholding with a majority of the land being forest? I can imagine forest would be great for pigs, hens and turkeys, but we want to have fruit and veg as well, and preferably a house if we can persuade the planners, so we just wondered how others have dealt with this?
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hello and welcome.
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Hi and welcome.
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Hello and welcome from Devon. :)
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Hi Libby and Neil....welcome and you've got to take the plunge. We're just setting ours up at the moment and have an area of young woodland which we are also planning to use as foraging for pigs and chickens. We've also got a fair bit of pasture so will be looking at getting the veg growing there but depending on the density and maturity of the woodland, I don't see why you couldn't create some glade areas for growing. Just need to be carefull of how much you fell as you may need a felling licence from the Forestry Commission or if the wood has any protection orders on it from the local council.
We're also looking at the possibility of building our own house on the land and I'd definitely recommed the book Field to Farm as a canny way of applying the planning system to suit your needs. We're about to go down this route so will keep you posted.
Cheers and let us know how you get on - Micko and Dee Dee
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Hello and welcome from me too ;D
Our farm is 130 acres and about 115 is planted with woodland, it's not long enough established yet for pigs (10 years they reckon before the trees are safe from the piggies) but very soon I'm going to have tamworths roaming - I'd love some wild bore or iron age pigs too - but we'll see how it goes ;)
As for the possibility of building - you don't say where you are, but up here in Lanarkshire it's almost a no-go (unless you happen to have influencial friends in the planning department) we tried for 6 years to get pp, spent thousands of pounds and jumped through every imaginable hoop they wanted us to - but still got a NO !
I'd try to speak to someone in the planning department in the area BEFORE buying anything. Again, with the felling to create open areas for growing - check before you commit to anything.
Good luck, and please keep us posted.
Karen x
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Hi and welcome to the TAS forums.
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Hi. Thanks for the welcomes.
We'll watch your progress with interest Micko and Dee Dee. All sounds exciting.
Happyhippy - wow sounds like you have a lot of land on your hands. We are currently in North Lanarkshire but looking at plots all over the place, within an hour of Glasgow really. The one we are interested in is in South Ayrshire, and going purely by their website, they seem less automatically negative towards countryside living than most other Councils we have looked at so far. There are a couple of houses that have been built on the road in question in the last few years, and they dont appear to have that much going on in land attached (but then you may be right about who they know).
We've emailed the Council with an outline of what we intend to do, and the location of the plot, and it's been assigned a planning officer, so even if we dont get this particular plot, it'll be useful to know what the Council is likely to say, and the process to go through.
Were you trying to build a house for yourselves or to sell? It does seem that some Councils are just complete no-go areas - I've heard Stirling can be the same.
Anyway, I look forward to hearing more about everyone's ventures on the other boards.
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Hello and welcome from Clackmannan, great to have some forestry , I love trees and wouldn't mind some myself but much more other "wants" and how nice if you could get it safe enough for pigs and chickens etc, always makes me think of that man from Grand Designs who built a stunning house in the woods as he was a Charcoal burner!!!!
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Hello and welcome, we planted trees around our ground but to give shelter to the animals more than anything. Does bring in a lot of wild life but I have never thought of giving the pigs free access as the ground can be water logged in the winter. I live near Banff and planning is who you know without a doubt.
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Hi,
We were trying to build for ourselves. :(
A few farms have turned into 'Courtyard developments' and planners are happy with that ! For some bizzarre reason 6 or 7 houses are seen as a better idea than 1 ???
Sabrina, as long as your trees are well established and there are dry areas in the summer/autumn i see no reason not to let them into the woods and just bring them back in in the winter. I believe most breeds would thrive in that environment, especially Tamworths from what I've read (and if you're really lucky and fast ! they might even root up a truffle or 2 !) But I haven't actually tried it yet as my trees aren't quite old enough to withstand the rooting - but soon !
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hello and welcome
I have mainly woodland and the pigs love it, take the plunge its worth it and as for pigs they are the best medication for stress the only problem is you could loose hours watchin them!!!!!
Gary
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Thanks for all the advice.
One other question we had, was whether any of you live in houses that have an agricultural tie to the land. Ideally we would prefer not to, as we want to start off without the pressure of having to make it a viable business, but hopefully over time, it would become one. Just wondered how other people find having that tie, and what happens if the business doesnt make a profit to start with. Can the Council say you cant live there?
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Hi and welcome from sunny and snowy Perthshire.
I too am considering pigs, and do have access to some woodland. I am concerend though that the woodland is on a rather hilly site - what would pigs make of this? Do they prefer / require flat land?
Good luck,
RIchard.
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Hello from North Yorkshire, good luck with your venture
Danielle
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Hi and welcome from sunny Alloa
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Hi Libby and Neil,
My husband and I have recently moved to our small holding in west Wales, after spending more than 5 years and thousands of pounds on trying to get planning permission on our land in the midlands. Even with experts backing up our case for builiding a dwelling on our land and other precedents across the country our planning officer was absolutely adamant that he would not issue permission. You may be more fortunate than us, but we have spoken to many many people with similar stories so as one of the other respondants suggested, I would suggest you get a view on your chances from your planning office well in advance of buying any land, and be prepared to have deep pockets!
Sally
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In Scotland, if planning is refused you can appeal to the Secretary of State, with no additional costs except fresh copies of the proposed plans. Is there not a similar system in England? Obviously you would only do this if you or your architect were sure of your facts, but I do know of cases in Aberdeenshire which were successful. I kow of one application to increase the size of a visitor centre which was turned down by the local planning officer despite many changes to the plans to satisfy him. He kept saying that it was too similar to a cafe and shop about 10 miles up the road. Then they went to appeal and won - I was told that he had a vested and undeclared interest! So maybe worth enquiring?
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Grasshopper - we did have a long chat with planning and eventually decided not to go for the plot that we were looking at. It may have been possible after a long hard struggle to get permission, but it would be tied to the land and they said we'd have to be making enough profit to pay a salary at the regional average, plus enough to be paying mortgage payments on a typical build for the area - seemed more complicated than it needed to be - and I suspect they say that to everyone to put them off, but we chickened out I'm afraid, and decided that we'd prefer to go for something with less struggle.
Currently looking for plots with planning or barns for conversion.
We have found an interesting one but would probably not be able to afford the whole thing ourselves (two cottages to be done up). Does anybody have experience of advertising for another person/couple/family to buy it jointly with and share the build costs?