A COUNTRYSIDE meditation centre has applied to demolish eight buildings and replace them with 11 new ones as part of a major overhaul of its student and staff accommodation at the 11-acre site.

Vipassana Trust Dhamma Dipa near Ross-on-Wye was given the go ahead to demolish a two-storey farmhouse last summer, and has now unveiled a major development scheme that will also see 10 caravans used by staff removed and 13 extensions built.

Students are not allowed to sleep and meditate above each other, meaning more single-storey private accommodation is required, the trust has told Herefordshire Council planners.

Based at Red House Lane in Pencoyd, St Owen’s Cross, the centre was set up at a former farm in 1991, and the trust says Dhamma Dipa’s ‘peaceful location is ideally suited to serious meditation’.

The site has been developed in recent years, with a communal shower block opened in 1999, followed by a meditation hall in 2003, and two teachers’ residences in 2005.

New single room student accommodation opened in 2008, and the kitchen, dining and office building were added later.

The new application says: “The purpose of the proposed development is twofold; to replace deteriorated farm buildings with purpose-designed student and server accommodation and to realise The Vipassana Trust’s vision for single bedroom accommodation for all students and servers, rather than the twin or dormitories currently provided, so that everyone can get the maximum benefit from the meditation courses provided...

“Students and servers will all sleep in one-storey, small single bedrooms of approximately 6m sq with either personal en-suite or shared toilet and washing facilities.

“Once completed, Dhamma Dipa will contain 186 bedrooms, of which 182 will be in use (the additional four are for the gender balancing of servers).

“There will be three fully wheelchair-accessible rooms for servers and managers, and six student rooms available for the various categories of disabled.”

Car parking spaces will also be increased from 64 to 74 as part of the plan.

Harsha Bhundia of the Vipassana Trust has previously told Herefordshire planners: “In the tradition of Vipassana Meditation, students should not sleep and meditate on top of each other, therefore the upper storeys are redundant.

“The replacement building or buildings will be single storey, higher performing, energy efficient with lower operational costs.”

Planners gave prior approval for the demolition of the farmhouse last summer, which is expected to take place in 2023.

The Vipassana Trust describes itself as an educational charity run solely by volunteers.

It says its purpose is: “To advance education through promotion of the teachings of the principles established by the late Sayagyi U Ba Khin, the study and practice of meditation and of the techniques, of developing concentration, insight and higher standards of morality as originally taught by the Buddha through the public dissemination generally of the said teachings and in such other ways as the Board members shall see fit, provided that any services be provided free of charge.”