Alan Heeks led a small team doing initial evaluation for this project for five years, but work was stopped in 2007. The initial research confirmed the appeal of this project for potential residents and visitors, and included an initial financial evaluation. The project is now awaiting involvement of larger partner organisations who could provide the professional capacity and initial funding to take the project forward.

Vision

The Dorset Eco-village (DEVA) is a plan to create a pioneering eco-village and informal community. DEVA aims to embody sustainable living in all its aspects: ecological, personal, social and economic, and to provide learning on these themes through a major visitor facility, The Natural Living Centre. DEVA will be both an informal, mutually supportive cohousing community, and a catalyst for sustainable living locally and beyond.

DEVA aims to evolve and demonstrate practicable ways to address a number of issues which are especially acute in rural areas, such as affordable housing, renewing the local economy and food links, creative ageing and sustainable transport. The proposals for DEVA have evolved from over six years of research, both general and locally-focused in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

Key Features

The aim is to create linked elements which together generate high awareness, visitor and income flows, and act as an economic and social catalyst for the locality. The combination of housing and employment, based on sustainable principles, will create an eco-village, and this concept is expected to attract high levels of public and media interest. The elements will be refined by further discussion with the local community, and by research.

The target overall land uses are: employment 10-15 acres, housing 10-15 acres, amenity land 10-30 acres. The key features proposed are:

Housing: A significant housing provision is central to this project in meeting local needs, creating a true eco-village, and demonstrating sustainable living in practice. The initial plan includes 100 units of housing, of which 40 will be affordable/social housing, with a range of tenure options operated by a housing association partner.

An important innovation in the plan is the cohousing model: this combines self-contained dwelling units with shared facilities, which are specified, owned and managed by the residents: see below for more detail of these facilities. Cohousing is well-established in Denmark, and rapidly gaining interest in the UK and elsewhere: its potential benefits include affordability, promoting sustainable living through shared resources, and the social support of an informal community.

All housing in NLC will meet Eco-Homes Excellent rating for sustainability, and will demonstrate several aspects of sustainable living, and thus link with the educational aims of the whole site, eg:

A range of ecological building designs

Ways to provide affordable housing, eg self-build, shared ownership

Lifestyle issues for sustainability, eg car pool, community market garden, live-work units

Demonstrating sustainable energy production and waste methods

The Visitor Centre: The focus will be on learning through experience, entertainment and specialist advice, for about 100 people per day, 30,000 visitors per year: including individuals, families and special interest groups. The Centre will serve both out-of-town visitors (sustainable tourism) and local needs. It will provide a showcase, hub, and growth platform for many existing and future initiatives in Dorset, both public sector and businesses. The learning content will cover all aspects of natural, sustainable living, such as:

Seeing and learning about eco-housing, energy, transport

How to renew local communities, creating mutual support and inclusion, eg for older people and disadvantaged groups

Creating social enterprises to renew local economies and meet local social needs

Personal lifestyle, healthy eating, stress management

Care for the environment through organic food production and conservation

Community Facilities: These will be available to local residents, as well as visitors and residents at NLC. Their scope will depend on research to define the best mix and location of facilities for the local area. At minimum the NLC facilities will include a multi-use meeting space, a dining and kitchen unit for lunch and supper clubs (eg single parents, over-60s, special interest groups), also guest rooms, laundry and other provision for the on-site housing residents. These facilities will be promoted to encourage mutual support and self-help, with special focus on older people, one-parent families and other special needs groups in the area. The function/meeting rooms, spa and café for the eco-lodge will be designed for shared use with the local community.
Eco-lodge: This is intended as a flagship for the whole site, and a major boost to green tourism in Dorset. The main building will have a restaurant, spa, café and meeting rooms which will also serve the local community. Capacity of around 60 bedrooms will be provided by lodges, using a range of ecological designs (eg straw bale, passive solar).

The eco-lodge will offer a range of sustainable tourism packages, which will also benefit the wider local economy. Examples of the sustainable tourism elements are: bike rentals, work in local conservation projects, visits to local food and craft producers, fishing, guided walking trails, and the on-site facilities of NLC. The eco-lodge will also serve individuals using the Visitor Centre and business clients.

Public Service Facilities: Some of the employment land will be reserved for use by public sector projects arising from local need. These could include community, education or health care facilities.
Sogent Business Park: The Social-Green Enterprise Park will create a cluster of service support, contacts and customer traffic which can catalyse economic development in this growing sector. Sogent will provide growth capacity for new and expanding enterprises in sectors already growing in Dorset, e.g. food, health care, green building products. Achieving this vision requires close collaboration with SWRDA and the district council, and probably some funding support. Examples of the benefits could be:

Skills training and use of local materials to provide affordable housing

Boosting local organic food production, processing and retailing

Services and health products to serve the fast-growing elderly population

The Affordable Housing Centre: A focus of expertise on all aspects of this issue, eg finance, planning, legal, design, community involvement: with on-site experts, data and network resources, and the eco-village to provide tangible examples.
The Natural Health Centre: With a focus on training and treatments (eg nutritional counselling) which use the resources of the site and enable clients to achieve a sustainable lifestyle.
Restaurant, Shop and Community Market Garden: These features will be linked so visitors learn the taste and health benefits of organic food and Slow Cuisine. It will be a showcase for food from the locality and from the on-site teaching garden.
Sustainable Transport: This is a key to renewal of rural communities and economies, and also central to this project. NLC will provide sustainable-transport to minimise car use by residents, visitors, and the surrounding locality, creating a reproducible model for villages and towns.

Organisation Structures

Initial research on this concept has been undertaken by the Rural Renewal Company, a social enterprise formed by Alan Heeks in 2003 to act as a consultancy and development partner in creating cohousing and sustainable living projects. RRC has a range of relevant professional contacts, including housing associations, architects and funding sources. However, the scale of the project requires a partnership involving one or more larger organisations with greater capacity to work with RRC to take the concept forward.

For further information

Alan Heeks, Lynchetts, East Road, Bridport, Dorset DT6 4AE. Tel: 01308 425371, .

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