The Rural Solutions design team achieve consent for their first Paragraph 79 project, to be constructed in the North Yorkshire hamlet of Thorlby.

Combining input from across our planning, architecture and landscape architecture teams, the proposal was put forward for a high quality, contemporary designed three-bedroom house, partially set into the sloping site and with tremendous views of Pendle Hill and the surrounding landscape.

The plan form was curved to respond to the site and the materials to be used on the building include local, natural stone, timber cladding and a sedum roof, all complementing the surrounding rural landscape of the rolling Yorkshire Dales.

Several sustainability measures were also included, so that the house would register a carbon emissions level equivalent to 50% of a typical house of the same size.

The landscape plans will incorporate a substantial increase in new trees to be planted at the site, as part of the contribution towards the biodiversity net gain requirements, also playing a part in protecting the view across the landscape.

The Planning Officer for Craven District Council in the report wrote that ‘there can be no doubt that the design of the proposed house can be considered to be innovative and of exceptional quality…It is concluded that there are very few, if any properties, within the Craven District that can claim this high level of sustainability or promote such a unique design’.