Our builders moved in at the start of July 2018, and started work immediately. Initial progress was rapid and it was so exciting to see the walls of the first building taking shape.
Unfortunately, we were halted in the middle of August, when I contacted Building Standards to see about getting a building warrant for the drainage, only to be told that we needed a warrant for the whole build. We’d checked months previously and been told that we didn’t need one, but a new standard had recently been introduced for glamping and BSA thought it would require us to have a warrant. After 18 months of to-ing and fro-ing, with the builders only able to tinker around on upgrading the summerhouse into a reception/laundry unit, and working on some landscaping and the drainage, it was eventually confirmed that, in fact, we only needed a warrant for the drainage, and not, after all, for the buildings. We have finally, therefore, been able to get moving with the build, though most of the builders’ time is currently taken up with meeting all the requirements for the drainage warrant. We’re very grateful to them for sticking with the project when most would have decided to move on to an easier job!
Until now the work has all been funded by a loan from my pension but we’ve had our first reimbursement from the LEADER grant, this week, which feels like a bit of a milestone in the project. Thanks again to the Scottish Government and European Community LEADER programme for their support on our project.
There’s still a bit of a way to go to finalise our drainage and the garden currently looks like the aftermath of trench warfare. Once the drainage work is complete, however, we can go on with the rest of the build and hopefully get the site open towards the end of the year.
