CASE STUDY FIT FOR PURPOSE
During their long saga to build a home with stables on an exposed site on the west coast of Scotland, David and Louisa Wallace discovered that bigger isn’t necessarily better when they had to edit their plans down
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ouisa Wallace had always dreamed of a home with enough land to keep her own horses, and in 2005, she and her partner, David Johnstone decided to realise it. Although their goal was clear, including starting a livery business, the odds were not in their favour when it came to finding a suitable property on Scotland’s west coast. “Property prices were going through the roof, and after a couple of years of searching, we decided we would stay put,” David recalls. owever, one day avid came home to find that Louisa had put some property details on his desk. “It was for a steading (farmstead) development with land.” Part of a former (now subdivided) dairy farm in South Lanarkshire, the couple made an appointment to view it. nfortunately, in the flesh it didn’t really appeal. Adjacent to the development, however, was the
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remainder of the farmland, which was also being sold off.
David: “We made some enquiries with planning, and I came away with the impression that we could have a house on the site within a couple of years. Firstly, we needed to establish the stables and unfortunately, we hadn’t realised how established that business would have to be before we could take on a house build too.” The couple bought a new, three-bedroom, static caravan and moved onto the plot in 2007. It took time to build up the business and they ran into some planning hitches, but eventually in 2012 they were granted planning permission for a generous 350 m² new build. But another setback occurred when planning was granted with obligations, known as Section 75 Agreements in Scotland ( Section 106 Agreements in England and Wales). These can
HIGH POINT
“There were several, but after 14 years in a caravan waking up and not knowing what the temperature is outside is still right up there!”
jan/feb 2023
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