with Charlotte Oliver
Time: Sat 11th, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Labels: Land and Resources , Workshops and Activities , Wellness and Community Action
Location: Permaculture Hub
Most people have little experience of the planning system until they need to use it. This session will cover an introduction to why there is a system, how to make the most of it, and some pitfalls to avoid, in the context of low impact development. There will be time for questions and answers, so please bring your experiences, good and not so great, to share with others embarking on the L.I.D. path.
Charlotte lives at Landmatters permaculture community near Totnes, Devon. She was involved in their journey from enforcement notices to permanent planning permission and draws on this experience and that of similar low impact developments.
Charlotte Oliver
My journey with permaculture began on a proposed supermarket site in London that was squatted in protest. Permaculture designers help to lay out our pop-up ecovillage and gardens, known as Pure Genius, and I was immediately drawn to the framework that permaculture offered for my political, environmental and social outlook. Via a Permaculture Design Course in Cornwall and a sizeable chunk of environmental campaigning, I find myself living in the leafy realms of the Devon coutryside in a low-impact roundhouse. The step-by-step placement of dwellings, infrastructure and gardens at Landmatters Co-op owes much to the wisdom and tools of permaculture, especially the use of Zones.
I used permaculture principles to design my house and gardens. And if I’m faced with a seemingly intractable problem, a new project or a “what am I doing with my life” moment, I turn to the design tools to organise my thinking. They seem to work equally well with matters vegetable, mineral and the ‘intangible’ – social permaculture being a fertile area in the evolution of permaculture thinking and practise.