Family living off-grid ordered to demolish eco-paradise shipping container home
A council has ordered a self-sustainable family to tear down their eco-friendly shipping container home.
Dan and Stacey Bond own land on the Hoad Meadow Alpaca Retreat near Folkestone in Kent but could soon be thrown out after the council took objection to a lack of planning permission.
Dan, 37, built the two-story home that included which boasts two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room.
Folkestone and Hythe District Councillors say the family had no planning permission for the makeshift eco house and they must now tear it down.
But furious Dan has labelled the council's decision as "insane."
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He said: "What do the council want? Do they want to give us a house? It's just insane. We're trying to be eco-friendly, we're trying to be sustainable.
Dan said the council's decision was 'insane' (KMG / SWNS)"Even if we did go on the housing list, we're not going to get a house. So we've tried to do our best and we can't afford anywhere else, so we've done this and this is what we've got.
"Within two weeks of moving in we had the planning enforcement officer at the gate asking exactly what we were doing.
"This is the right thing for me and my family and the best life for my daughter to be brought up in."
The home was built out of recycled material and shipping containers and also has a pond, hot tub and solar panels to power it.
Dan and Stacey, 31, live with their four-year-old daughter Eva in the country home.
Their previous home was a converted double-decker bus.
Dan and Stacey at their off-grid home (KMG / SWNS)The shipping container home cost around £40,000 to build, but was branded "detrimental" to the "character and appearance of the countryside" and the North Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The family, who grows their own food and keeps chickens. Alpacas, pigs, and goats also roam in the surrounding fields and tourists are invited to hire a luxurious bell tent - at £125 per night - or pitch their own tent on the farm for £25 a night.
Dan said: "We've got a 40ft shipping container and a 20ft one on top. We've got two bedrooms, a kitchen and bathroom downstairs, and then the living room upstairs.
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The home was deemed 'detrimental to the character and appearance of the countryside' (KMG / SWNS)"Everything is upcycled. We try to avoid buying anything new because it's just not in the ethos of the place.
"There aren't enough houses as it is - we're fortunate we could get the land in the first place.
"I think there should be more opportunities out there for youngsters to work a sustainable life."
Dan said the family applied in 2018 to build a "subterranean eco-home" on the land, but this was refused and the family was told it would be an "unsustainable development in the countryside."
Last week, Folkestone and Hythe District Councillors voted unanimously to approve planning officers' recommendations that enforcement action be taken against the family.
This is despite the land being close to the A260 between Folkestone and Canterbury.
The property boasts two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room (KMG / SWNS)He has also had trouble putting forward his case to the council due to the costs involved and his dyslexia.
They were given permission for the driveway, but are still facing their home being torn down.
"We've got our vegetable plots, we've got our meat, we've got everything here we're growing and producing, just trying to be as self-sufficient as we can.
"It's just such a nice place to bring up a four-year-old. It's just trying to do everything for you and for your family and give them the best. Something like this is just very unobtainable.
The family grows their own vegetables (KMG / SWNS)"We're not in masses of open countryside. It is a quiet little cul-de-sac - it's not out in the middle of nowhere. We have never got a handout for anything. We've done everything off our own backs - we've paid our way.
"Just because it's a bit alternative doesn't mean it's not right."
A planning report stated: "The residential and tourism uses are considered to constitute unsustainable development in the countryside, result in the loss of best and most versatile agricultural land and be detrimental to the character and appearance of the countryside and the North Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Special Landscape Area.
"It has not been demonstrated that the uses would not result in harm to occupants of the site from contamination or that the additional overnight accommodation would not result in harm to internationally designated sites.
Chickens at the family home (KMG / SWNS)"The tourism use is also considered to be detrimental to the amenity of nearby residents."
An enforcement notice has now been issued requiring the family to return the land to how it was and vacate within 12 months.
In a nod to Jeremy Clarkson's similar challenges in getting planning permission for his farm in the Cotswolds, Dan added: "It certainly does chime; especially with the number of people against you when all you're trying to do is bring in people to a nice place, to view it and see it and all the rest of it."
Dan says the family have launched a GoFundMe page to raise the necessary money to appeal the council's decision and not have to move from their home.
On his family now facing the perilous prospect of being made homeless, Dan added: "Where do I put my family? My daughter goes to the school just down the road... We wouldn't have anywhere else to live.
"So what can we do? Are the council going to give us a house?
'It's just such a nice place to bring up a four-year-old,' Dan added (KMG / SWNS)"I very much doubt it. They're the ones who are basically making us homeless.
"I don't know what we'd do. It's an unbearable thought, to be honest. It's very worrying.
"To uproot everything that you've put into it, it's unbearable.
"We were working on submitting plans for the glamping site and one the back of that would be the home, because you need to be there on the site.
"But the council were very sneaky... We were corresponding with them all the time, and if they would have given us a timescale we would have got our planning applications in.
"But we are not planning to give up any time soon."
A Folkestone & Hythe District Council spokesperson said Mr Bond had first applied for planning permission to erect a dwelling on the site back in 2018, which was refused.
He subsequently constructed a biodiversity pond and hardstanding "without planning permission", which was then granted in December 2021 after he applied retrospectively.
At this stage, the council said he communicated through his agent that he only intended to use the land for agricultural purposes.
But he then "moved onto the site, without planning permission, in approximately March/April 2022", according to the local authority, and told a visiting council officer shortly afterwards that he would submit a retrospective application for planning permission for the new living structure.
The officer informed him that while it was "likely that enforcement action would be taken", a period of "abeyance" could be in place, effectively suspending a decision, if he submitted a planning application.
The Folkestone & Hythe District Council spokesperson said he had still not submitted an application a year later.
Dan said: 'Where do I put my family? My daughter goes to the school just down the road' (KMG / SWNS)Explaining the council's decision to take planning enforcement action, they said: "The site lies in the countryside, where national and local planning policies seek to restrict new residential development.
"The site also lies in the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Government planning policy states that ‘great weight should be given to conserving and enhancing landscape and scenic beauty in… areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which have the highest status of protection in relation to these issues’.
The spokesperson added that the enforcement notice has not yet been served, and that Mr Bond and his family would have a year to comply once it has.
He currently has the opportunity to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, they said, who would reach a decision on whether or not to grant planning permission for the development and whether a year is a "sufficient amount of time" for him to complyall do
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