Lee

Thanks for the Plan A recommendations. I was also looking at this architect, http://www.cotswoldarchitects.com, who will give a free site visit and quote.

It will be a large house on about a 1/2 acre plot. Nice quiet location. The ground floor will have cotswold stone cladding (with no mortar) and the 1st floor will be larch. The roof will be a mixture of wood and metal so it will not be a traditional style house. There are pictures of it, half completed, on the website - at the bottom of the page: http://www.passivebuildingstructures.com/index.php/how-we-build-passive-structures/insulated-concrete-forms-for-walls The owner is the brother of the person who owns the building company. He is very pleasant and was happy to show me around.

Hello everyone, My situation is this: I own (with my wife) part of an old farmyard of just over an acre, in the Cotswolds AONB, about 4 miles from Cirencester. We bought it just over 3 years ago. The plot consists of our brick house which was built in 2000, as a replacement for a large wooden shed; 4 stone built cottages that were converted from agricultural buildings to holiday lets, about 20 years ago; and a metal dutch barn. The stone cottages are now let to long term tenants. The barn is on a section of land of about 1/3 acre, looking south-west over fields. It is about 400 sq m and built of iron girders and rusting corrugated iron. I would like to knock it down and build a more or less traditional Cotswold house with various outbuildings to provide privacy for me and the neighbours. Funding will come from selling my house, which may need a bit of work done to it first. Working full-time, I doubt I will want to do much of the work myself. I have spoken to Flemming, Durisol and this ICF company, http://www.passivebuildingstructures.com, who are building a house a few miles away in Ampney St Mary. I met them all at the Swindon Self Build Centre. I plan to contact MBC too. I like the idea of a passive house, but it's not as important to me as getting the design right. The first serious step is starting a planning application at the Cotswold District Council (CDC). Their pre-application planning costs £500+vat but I don't know if this is useful. My feeling is that I'm best to contact a local architect to ease the process. I also found this company, www.plan-a-planning.co.uk that could be be useful? Any suggestions gratefully received. Lee