Good morning fellow hutters.
I bought my 2 acres of woodland in the Scottish Borders in 2023. Close to Melrose. I ended up buying it blind, as it went through before I had managed to view it, (long story), and knowing it was in a conservation area, my plan was to build a hut of some description, despite beind told by the estate agents that I had zero chance of getting planning permission, I refused to accept that. 2024 was consumed with the planning process, what was normally an 8 week process went on for 6 months! I feel lucky that the government created the planning policy for huts and the New Hutting Development document on the good practice guidance on the planning process developed by Reforesting Scotland, as well as the support by the planning officer at the local council. The details of the process of getting planning permission in a conservation area is proposed as a topic for me to talk about at the next Hutters Rally in 2026. I have written the whole process as a chapter by chapter, blow by blow account. I have called it the Tree Hut Story. I am updating it regularly with the progress. If anyone is interested in reading it I want to know the best way of sharing it and its regular updates?
Best wishes to all, always.
Stuart Bavester
Great post Stuart!
I would love to read your account about your hut planning journey. I am sure that many other on here would too.
I think this forum allows you to post things as a blog? I’m not sure, but if you contact Al Whitworth, who built this hub, he will give you advice. @AlWhit
Even if you just shared each page as a separate post, that would be work too. The more people who share their story, the more others will be inspired to take the plunge.
I keep meaning to share my own story about our wee hut on here. I really must get round to it. This forum is better than mainstream social media for sharing info (e.g. FB) because the resources don’t get lost over time and can easily be found and used by others.
Our planning permission was much quicker than I anticipated/feared, perhaps because our hut was small and the local planners had experience of Carbeth Huts, and so they knew what a hut is.
Almost three years after starting, ours is not yet finished (maybe it never will be!) but it is now warm, wind and watertight. It’s our wee bit of heaven and has changed our lives for the better.
Sounds great and you’d be very welcome to share your story here… You can edit the post to add updates, or post replies, as you prefer.
I’m very much up for any requests for features to add here to make it more useful to folk. One thing is improving on the resource / article / document side of things and I’ve got a few things to test out with that soon.