Update 3: What planning said - and what we're doing about it

We received the formal response from planning following the May site visit, as part of our pre-application enquiry. It's comprehensive, and sets out clearly what we now need to do - although it's a lot of work before we can get started.

As expected, there are parts of the Bridging Island Plan - the framework that determines what planning will and won't approve on our island - that present some real barriers we need to make a case for. The crux of it is location: we're looking to build on agricultural land in the Green Zone. It's a fair challenge, and we have a good answer to it - it's a site we have access to, with good road connections, and a venture that ties itself to the beauty of nature rather than working against it. But we still need to evidence that case thoroughly, and that takes time, money and the right people.

To support the application, we've been asked to commission a number of specialist reports:

• A Visual Impact Assessment

• A Preliminary Ecological Appraisal

• A Flood Risk Assessment

• A Transport Assessment

This is a big investment and definitely starts to stretch the boundaries of what I'm comfortable navigating myself. I'm exploring planning consultants with real local experience to lead this, though I'm extremely conscious it won't necessarily be cheap.

Although none of this is a surprise - and I won't go as far as saying it's discouraging - it does demonstrate some of the barriers to making investments like this. It's the process doing what it's supposed to do. Each individual ask is reasonable, but it compounds. Building something genuinely new on our island was never going to be straightforward, and perhaps that's the right thing - taken from the perspective of protecting it.

I'll keep posting updates here as things develop. And if you'd like to follow along more closely, sign up to the mailing list below - when the moment comes that community support can make a real difference, you'll be the first to know.

Any questions? Get in touch via the Contact page.