IN DECEMBER 2018, I applied for permission to build a One Planet Development (OPD) in west Wales. After being refused permission twice, my case goes to appeal later this month.

An OPD is a Welsh policy which enables applicants to commit to a sustainable lifestyle and build a dwelling on agricultural land if they meet certain criteria.

The criteria are not that complicated. A zero-carbon build, 65 per cent of all needs being provided from the land within five years of permission being granted, a land-based business, growing food, limiting journeys and generally bringing your personal carbon footprint down to a level which meets the guidelines for sustainable futures.

All sounds like a great idea, especially when you consider how many people dream of living on a piece of land and building their own home.

Unfortunately, some local planning authorities seem to have taken it upon themselves to deliberately halt or at least slow down the process.

Many of the OPD sites are situated in rural Pembrokeshire. Mainly because the birth of the OPD movement happened here. With the inception of the Eco Village at Lammas and permission being given to the roundhouse dwellers at Brithdir Mawr, the county got a bit of a reputation for being the place to do an OPD.

I grew up in Pembrokeshire and have watched the property prices spiral out of control with the constant stream of people moving here to retire or buying holiday homes.

Local employment and wages are dire and so there aren’t many locals who can buy a property.

Rents are also scandalously high — everyone gets up in arms when a housing development gets planning and there are plans to include so-called affordable housing, which is a complete misnomer on every conceivable level anyway.

In its present form, an OPD is an option only available to anyone able to afford to buy a little piece of land. The smallest OPD is just over one acre; any less than that and it’s unlikely permission will be granted.

I got a bit of cheap moorland and moved on, seeing as I needed somewhere to live, and because of that my application is retrospective.

This is why I’m being made such an example of. But it’s not only the retrospectives that are getting a hard time.

Another local OPD is going to planning committee this coming Tuesday, after a wait of more than 16 months.

This is an applicant that has behaved impeccably, but the council has still dragged its feet in a way that cannot be reasonably justified. Planning applications are supposed to take eight weeks.

In its early days, applicants were waiting three years for a decision, fighting local objections in the process.

Village wars began and placards with “Dim Lammas” (No Lammas) were posted all over the countryside. But the guys from the Lammas project had kicked the door off and made the policy what it was. The thing has become so mainstream that there are people running level 7 courses on OPDs at the university in Carmarthen.

But none of these courses tell you how to cope with the local opposition, the neighbour objections and the planning officers encouraging this behaviour.

OPDs hold the potential to solve so many problems, but local councils won’t even let it get past the first hurdle without wasting massive resources on fights, arguments against and appeals. If OPDs were allowed to flourish, and were embraced by local authorities, think how much could be achieved.

There are so many people I know living locally, trapped in expensive rentals or council estates, that would love to be doing what I’m doing. There is lots of development land available locally which will inevitably be built on one day. But instead of the usual, modern social housing, boxes with no gardens, or flats, which governments tell us there isn’t the money to build, why not produce eco villages?

An eco house can be built really cheaply. The ethos of OPD is to use recycled materials where possible, solving some of the local waste problems by reusing items.

Also, if everyone is on solar power and there is a bore-hole for water with collected rainwater and managed woodland for fuel, then all bills disappear. You have council tax and internet. That’s it. No mains services would have to be installed.

The welfare bill would drop hugely. Most benefits that people receive go on their bills and their rent. Imagine if those things were out of the equation? Families would be able to expand by building an extra pod when a child was born or an elderly relative needed somewhere. It would be a return to the community model.

Children would live in nature, learning to grow food and care for livestock. Adults would have less stress, therefore slashing the anti-depressant bill. It’s a complete no-brainer. But everyone I mention this to says that it wouldn’t work because it’s not profitable and so it will never be allowed. We can’t continue the way we are, but if every solution has to be profitable, then we’re never going to find a solution.

In the meantime, those that have applied for an OPD, less than 50 households in 10 years, get to experience the full brunt of being a pioneer. It’s been the most stressful experience of my life and I know many others who would say the same.

The moneyed Nimbys who object so vociferously don’t see why you should get to live next to their £300k property on your £10k land, conveniently ignoring that they could do it too, if they were willing to rough it a bit, get cold and use a compost toilet. They wouldn’t do that though — so you shouldn’t be allowed to either.

If I’m not successful at my appeal, I’ll have to pull my entire smallholding down and I will be homeless. The decision rests with one, lone Welsh Assembly planning inspector. Here’s hoping he’s not a psychopath.