A YOUNG Glandwr couple – who have spent three years fighting to save their beautiful eco roundhouse from demolition - are celebrating, after being told they can keep their home.

Megan Williams and Charlie Hague – who built their turf-roofed ‘Hobbit house’ without planning permission ahead of the birth of their young son Eli – found out the good news last week.

“We were so happy and relieved,” said Charlie, 27.

“We had been checking every day for news, and then we were just doing some paperwork and it came through - it took a while to sink in!”

The couple had been waiting to hear whether the outcome of a Welsh Government appeal hearing, held in May, had overridden a previous decision by Pembrokeshire County Council to pull down the property.

In granting retrospective planning permission, planning inspector Kay Sheffield said Megan and Charlie had demonstrated their home met strict One Planet Development (OPD) policy guidelines.

In order to qualify under OPD, the couple had to show in detail that they can sustain themselves by what they produce on the land, and prove that their home has a low impact on the environment.

OPD guidelines state that at least 65 per cent of basic food needs must be produced on site, or 30 per cent grown on site, with a further 35 per cent bought or bartered using income from other produce grown or reared on site.

Since their home hit the headlines in March 2013, when they were issued with an enforcement notice by Pembrokeshire County Council, the couple’s decision to build without planning permission has divided international opinion.

The couple say becoming the ‘accidental face of eco living’ has been both a blessing and a curse.

“A lot of people have read articles about us, and assumed we’re just ‘middle class hippies’, but we did this out of necessity,” said Megan, who maintains there was no other way for her young family to afford to stay in the community they grew up in.

“It’s been difficult to deal with some of the negative comments, but we’ve just had to go with it, and the support we have had has also been amazing.”

More than 100,000 people signed an online petition calling on the county council to grant the pair planning permission, with supporters describing the house as a ‘template for how low-impact environmental housing could be’.

But Charlie said not everyone had backed them, with objectors – including some county councillors -raising concerns that granting retrospective planning permission would set a precedent for similar developments.

“I’ve seen a lot of comments online from people who think it’s an easy option,” he said.

“I don’t think people realise how strict OPD guidelines are.

“We only got the house through OPD, but there aren’t that many people who are going to want to meet all those rules and live in a house like this.

“A lot of people like what we’ve done, but the reality of living like this is very different.”

Despite three years of uncertainty, Charlie said he hoped the couple’s battle had highlighted the need for affordable, sustainable housing.

Asked how he felt about the county council’s refusal to grant planning permission, Charlie said it seemed as if the authority had been ‘trying to prove a point’.

“They could quite easily have passed it,” he said.

“We added a little bit more information before it went to appeal, but really it’s so strict it’s just ridiculous.”

He said he was glad that two other families had recently been granted planning permission under OPD within the village, and hoped this spelled the start of a culture change.

“Hopefully things will change for the better and it will be easier for other people,” he said.

The couple are now looking forward to getting married this autumn, and being able to enjoy their home with their son.

Summing up the past three years, Charlie said: “You feel down when you have to go for a hearing or when you get a letter or something, but all the times in between you just get on with it.”

Megan said she had never let herself think about what would happen if the couple’s appeal was turned down.

“I had to believe that we would succeed, and just keep that positivity that what we were doing was right,” she said.