Planning permission has been granted for around 30 environmentally friendly homes at the Cloughjordan Eco Village project - allowing construction work to finally begin.

Billed as Ireland's first 'eco village', the scheme will eventually encompass 113 homes, built to have a minimal impact on the environment.

Work will now begin on the first phases of these houses - around a quarter of the dwellings - after delays in gaining adequate planning permission.

Construction work at the pioneering scheme was originally expected to commence during the summer.

The developer behind the scheme, Sustainable Projects, announced this week that full planning permission to build around a quarter of the planned homes has now been approved.

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According to reports in the Nenagh Guardian, Sustainable Projects Sales Executive Dave Flannery has expressed a hope that work will commence on-site within the next month.

This would allow the first residents to move in as early as next spring.

Planning permission for the remainder of the project is reportedly at an advanced stage.

It is expected that around 200 people will inhabit the village once it is complete.

Those living in the comminity will be expected to commit themselves to ecological, social and economic sustainability.

The project's resources will include a group heating network of solar panels and a central unit fired by coppiced wood, all from the development's own woodland and other sustainable wood products.

Producing its own energy grid, the village will source electrical power from a renewable energy provider, and allotments will be available to each household to grow its own vegetables and produce.

An extensive area for woodland and wildlife will be included in the eventual development.

See: Irish Eco-village Construction To Start This Summer

(PR)