Thanks Panda

The situation is a bit awkward for the mayor - he has pushed for some years to declassify this particular bit of land, which is a real 'noggin' of 1700m2 on the end of the constuctible; it really is an anomaly. However, I can imagine that for him to be too active in quashing the application might leave him open to conflict of interest charges - and since the Departmental PLU calls for an extra 30 houses over the next 10 years the Dept would also want to know why he has turned down acompartively 'easy' find.

There are several reasons why it shouldn't be used as a building plot - the view would be quite good if it weren't for a rather large barn blocking the view of the Alps, there isn't very good natural drainage, there's no electricity, etc etc - none of which are re4asons which would stand up 'in court'.

At a rough guess, the (constructible) value would be around €60K, and the owner offered it to me for €90K; I leave it to your imagination as to what my reaction was.