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[biznzebs]

Hi Dave

My husband and I have been wanting to start a small holding, with a yurt campsite and studio space for some time now. We almost got there about 3 years ago, with lots of support from local council and national trust representatives. Unfortunately the land that was available to us suddenly became unavailable and it has taken us until now to find another suitable piece of land. We have just found what appears to be the perfect plot, 27 acres, road access and on a canal. Having read your book several times and looked though as many posts as I can on your site, I still have a few questions...I hope you don't mind?
Firstly, we want to site 5 yurts and have plots for tents as well. We want to breed alpacas and pigs and grow fruit and veg to sell to the local community. I have not spoken to the planners about our plans but have written an in depth proposal as to our plans, which I hope would be looked upon favourably as it seems to tick lots of boxes within local policy. If we go to the planners and they approve it, would we then be able to start along the process described in your book to eventually allow us to build our house on the land? Or should we start with your system and then apply to site yurts on the land? I know we can get permission for touring caravans, but this isnt really what we want, and my argument is if we are allowed to site caravans with out applying for permission, why not yurts? We haven't bought the land yet, and are still trying to find out if there are any reasons why it wouldn't fit the criteria, but so far so good. We would be sinking our whole assets into this project and need to know that it is viable. The studio space we want to build would be for running classes/educational courses, could income from this count towards the viability tests?
We would also want to build our shower blocks/studio/barn out of straw bale, would this be allowed?
I wold be very grateful of any advice you could offer...do we contact the planners with our ideal plan, or do we follow your system and then diversify at a later date? How long after?

Many thanks

biznzebs