A COUPLE are celebrating after their zero-carbon home at Llanarth was approved despite concerns about emergency service access.

Laura Mears and Rob Smth’s plan had been deferred for a site inspection panel to take a look around and they found it to be a “magical place” for them to build a One Planet Development home.

Cllr Lyndon Lloyd told a development control meeting that he found the hill from Mr Smith’s existing workshop to the proposed site “quite substantial”.

He said: “When you reached the top you could see it’s a great place to a home for this young couple.”

He, along with many of the councillors on the committee, acknowledged that access was an issue but the positives outweighed this.

The plan for the modest home at Allt Cefn Ffynnon was supported by both the local community council and county council member for the area Bryan Davies.

It includes a poly-tunnel and shed, which would allow them to live a low-impact, zero-carbon life on their 15-acre woodland.

Cllr Lloyd added that there was a future for the business producing charcoal and furniture along with the plan to bring young people on to site to learn about forestry.

“We should support them in their initiative they are trying to establish,” he added.

Cllr Rowland Rees-Evans abstained from the vote on Wednesday, as he did at the site visit, saying as a member of the Fire Authority he could not support the plan with concerns about emergency access unresolved.

The committee agreed that improving access could be looked again by the couple but Cllr Lloyd reiterated his point that there are many homes and farms in the county which are hard to access by fire engines and the like.

All members of the committee, apart from Cllr Rees-Evans, voted to approve the plan, contrary to officer recommendation.

See this week’s South Ceredigion paper for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition now