Selfsufficientish.com

I'm not sure whether someone else has posted this link (I cant see it but it may be another section) but this little piece leapt out at me this morning...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -huts.html

What a fantastic story and I'm so glad it ended the right way.
I recall when the first of these houses were built...oh......maybe not if it was all hush hush. There was a well documented similar house to this a few years back. Can't be the same house can it?

Brilliant - gives you hope..........

I remember cheering them on when they were 'caught', so happy they won their case!

I'd move there in a shot if it was possible

It's disgraceful that people must face a rampaging bureaucracy with bulldozers just so that they can live simply, especially when planning permission is given for shoddy housing that can only exist by draining 'the commons'.

(Another thought springs to mind too: If people in the UK are treated to this sort of harassment and incomprehension by authorities, what must foreigners under UK colonial 'supervision' in Afghanistan and Iraq face when the British 'authorities' are armed and don't speak the language?)

I saw the article yesterday too, and it did bring a smile to my face.

Are they actually using anything that council tax pays for? If they are, then i believe that they should contribute, but if they've been there for 15 years and not needed anything that the council tax pays for, then why should they pay it?

What does council tax pay for anyway?

the.fee.fairy wrote:
What does council tax pay for anyway?

just a few off the top of my head - Schools, police, roads, refuse collection, street sweepers, care for the elderly... there is more but I think the budgets are different north and south of the border.

I am all for these people living the way they are living, it is beautiful, but I don't like the idea that people 'opt out' of paying for the community. There should be a nominal council charge for these people, but if we chased down all the other non-payers in the country that would be a start, as these are the ones that use more services.

I don't use (or could easily do without) most of the services the council provide but I pay gladly for all these things because one day I might need them. I wouldn't want to live somewhere the police won't come out because I don't pay private security charges, or if I want a school education for my child I have to pay for it, or I take ill in my old age and can't afford to be looked after... What a horrid country that would be.

That's exactly what i think!

Brilliant good for them.

azjh77 wrote:
We need more places like this, and more people like this. I'd be there in a shot, but I think OH would take some convincing....

How far would people go to get a place like this?? Would you divorce your other half if need be ??
I ask out of interest because I've always said that if anything happened to my wife and son then I'd give everything to greenpeace and go to be a buddhist monk. However that wouldn't happen until then. Mind you my heart has been torn apart a couple of times when life changing questions raise their ugly head but I haven't opted for the "hard decision"

Annpan wrote:

the.fee.fairy wrote:
What does council tax pay for anyway?

I don't use (or could easily do without) most of the services the council provide but I pay gladly for all these things because one day I might need them. I wouldn't want to live somewhere the police won't come out because I don't pay private security charges, or if I want a school education for my child I have to pay for it, or I take ill in my old age and can't afford to be looked after... What a horrid country that would be.

It's called America isn't it?

Big Al wrote:

Annpan wrote:

the.fee.fairy wrote:
What does council tax pay for anyway?

I don't use (or could easily do without) most of the services the council provide but I pay gladly for all these things because one day I might need them. I wouldn't want to live somewhere the police won't come out because I don't pay private security charges, or if I want a school education for my child I have to pay for it, or I take ill in my old age and can't afford to be looked after... What a horrid country that would be.

It's called America isn't it?

hmm, yeah, pretty much

I read somewhere that, in the UK, for every person, there is 14 acres of land.

Now I dont know if that's accurate or not, but it makes you wonder: instead of all living on top of one another, struggling to pay mortgages, putting up with noise from neighbours and so on, wouldnt it be a better lot if everyone was given their 14 acres as a birth right?

Of course it wouldnt have to be compulsory. If anyone would rather live in a town they could exchange their land for a flat or something.

But for the rest. I reckon it would be a big improvement. Own land, own detached house built of straw or stone or wood. There could be limits on basic size and style but no more than that.....

Could be lovely.

Ah well. In the meantime, it's Sweden for me. Spain or France for others. Flats and window boxes for still others.

Good luck to those folk with their huts!

Unfortunately I don't think it's quite as much as that. The UK is 93788 sq miles and has a population of around 60 million. I think that works out at about 1 acre per person - although someone with a better grasp of conversion would need to confirm that.

The idea sounds lovely though!

Graye wrote:Unfortunately I don't think it's quite as much as that. The UK is 93788 sq miles and has a population of around 60 million. I think that works out at about 1 acre per person - although someone with a better grasp of conversion would need to confirm that.

The idea sounds lovely though!

93788 sq miles = 60,024,319.999 American acres, are British acres any different?

http://www.onlineconversion.com/