The Threshold Centre scheme has aimed to provide an education and sustainable living centre with the cohousing residential element ancillary to the main educational use. In summary, the planning application submitted December 2007 included:

• Converting the main farmhouse into an educational use and guest accommodation;
• Converting the Timber Barn (then used as a workshop) into three affordable rental one-bedroom dwellings;
• Converting Sette Brook Barn (which was formerly used as a children's nursery) into four terraced cottages. Two of these are 'affordable dwellings';
• Change of use for the existing seven cottages from holiday use to permanent dwellings (two of which have become 'affordable dwellings') with co-ownership use conditions.
• A small timber clad building has been erected to house a biomass (pellet wood) fuelled central boiler and fuel store. The roof of two cottages is used to generate electricity using photo-voltaic panels. This has been done with the aim of the Centre working toward zero carbon emissions.
• Overall, the education facilities and affordable cohousing units represent 65% of total floor space, with owner-occupied cohousing units being 35%.

A detailed Planning Support Statement was produced by Land Use Consultants, a leading national planning consultancy, which provided full details of the proposals, and an appraisal in relation to local, regional and national planning policies. As part of this process, the then current, proposed and alternative uses of the site were extensively reviewed against local plan policy 1.10, Re-use and adaptation of rural buildings in the countryside. The proposals included evidence from Rural Dorset Tourism and others which confirmed that the then current permitted use of 7 dwellings on site as holiday cottages was not economically viable. Evidence was provided, including a letter from County Highways, showing that preferred alternative uses for the site, eg business, recreational etc, were not viable on the grounds of traffic generation, economic viability and other factors.

The Planning Appraisal demonstrated in detail the ways in which the proposals contribute to the aims of North Dorset's Sustainable Development Strategy, and to priorities in the Corporate Plan for Improvement, as well as fulfilling various aspects of regional and national planning objectives.