Will the establishment ever let the people be green on our terms?
Or will going green mean you can only buy from the corporations which line their pockets?

jon, portishead,

Mr Wrench is applying retrospectively under new regulations which is something that many people do and other people get away with entirely. Their ruling that this development is causing "severe degradation" to the landscape really exposes their ignorance of how the countryside works. Virtually no part of the British landscape is unmanaged by people. The small scale management by Mr Wrench is exactly the kind that forged the best bits of the British countryside we know today. Small field systems with extensive grazing are best for biodiversity, soil protection and tourism - just look at Dorset. What would happen if Mr Wrench has to move? The land would revert to unmanged scrub of little value to wildlife or the local economy. But the planners would be able to tick their box and go on to approve endless breeze-block farm buildings and the local golf course. Backward thinking at its worse.

D.H, Henshaw, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

I wish I could live in a home such as this! I commend Wrench and Faith for being environmentally-friendly role models. It is truly tragic that rules and regulations are enough to destroy even the most beautiful of philosophies. The house is a symbol, and if the demolition occurs it, too, is a symbol: one of the insensitive and uninspired crassness of modern life.

Andrea, Golden, Colorado, United States of America

From the information provided in the article it appears that it is the location that is the problem. As the saying apparently goes "Location, Location, Location". The same house, with planning permission, in a more suitable location would no doubt be a blessing.

Fiona Anderson, Camberley, Surrey

So the Park authority say the house isn't green enough? Fine, let them be good to their claimed standards, though, and demolish every other home (and second home!) in their jurisdiction with a worse carbon footprint.

We'll see how quickly the "high hurdles" get lowered then, eh?

Mark Langford, Beccles, Suffolk

Well (Arnold of Weybridge) that may be true, but (as in the case of Shambo the bull) the impression is left that a bunch of jobsworths are having a field day enforcing every last rule and regulation. I saw it in France, where poorly-paid functionaries took a malign delight in tormenting the hapless applicant over something they had it within their power to grant or withhold. A favourite trick was to say, at 15 minutes to 12, that their lunchbreak was about to start and come back at 2pm. When you got back at 2 pm they would say that you hadn't brought all the right documents, so come back tomorrow. And so on. Perhaps the authorities in the present instance are not being sadistic, but one is entitled to wonder...

J.Fletcher, Canterbury, UK

Had the house been built with the benefit of planning permission it would be immune from enforcement. Mr. Wrench has decided that the town planning rules and regulations to which the rest of us are subject in the public interest, do not apply to him.

Arnold Ward, Weybridge, Surrey, UK