Rural and Agricultural – Page 4
Class Q conversions, agricultural permitted development, farm diversification and countryside policy.
Rural and Agricultural articles – page 4
134 articlesRemoving an agricultural occupancy condition by section 73
An agricultural tie is removed on evidence, not on hardship. Here is what a section 73 application needs: a disclosed marketing exercise at a restricted price, a chartered valuation and an answer to the council's local need case.
Shepherd's huts and mobile homes on agricultural land
A hut on wheels is usually a caravan, so siting it is not operational development. The question is whether occupying it changes the use of the land, and it usually does.
Livestock buildings, ammonia and the consultation trigger
Screening distances to designated sites decide whether a livestock building is a three month application or a year-long one. Check all three frames before choosing a position.
Anaerobic digestion on a farm: the evidence base
Feedstock origin decides whether a farm digester is agricultural diversification or a waste installation. That choice sets the policy tests and the whole evidence base.
Glamping and campsites: the 60 day rule
Temporary camping use is permitted development for a limited number of days a year. The right stops at anything built, which is where glamping sites fail.
Barn conversion bat survey: the sequence and the seasons
A barn conversion bat survey runs from a daytime roost assessment to a Natural England licence. The season sets the programme, and missing it costs a year.
Mobile homes and caravans on agricultural land
A caravan on wheels is still development when the use of the land changes. What the exemptions cover, how temporary permissions work and what conditions require.
Soil handling and restoration conditions
Planning treats soil as a resource, not spoil. What a soil resource plan must cover, the moisture rules that stop work and how restoration conditions are closed out.
Farm access onto a rural road: visibility evidence
Highway officers decide farm accesses on visibility evidence. How to survey approach speeds, set out the splay and deal with hedgerow removal and gate setbacks.
Replacing a rural building rather than converting it
A conversion keeps the building, a replacement is new build in the countryside, and the evidence for each is different. How to decide which route your barn can carry.
Forestry operations and permitted development rights
Forestry permitted development allows buildings and tracks reasonably necessary for forestry, and nothing else. Felling is controlled separately, and a licence is not planning permission.
Farm diversification into events and wedding venues
An events business on a farm is sui generis development judged on noise, evening traffic and the capacity of the lane. The 28 day rule is narrower than most operators assume.
Anaerobic digestion plants on farms: the planning case
A farm anaerobic digestion plant is sui generis development, not agricultural permitted development. Odour, digestate storage, harvest traffic and engine noise are what the application turns on.
Solar farms on agricultural land: the policy tests
Solar farm applications turn on land quality, views, restoration and the grid connection. Here is the evidence each of those four questions needs.
Equestrian use: where agriculture stops
Grazing is agriculture. Keeping horses is not. Here is where the line falls, and what it means for stables, manege applications and livery yards.
New agricultural buildings under Part 6
New farm buildings on holdings of five hectares or more are usually permitted development under Part 6, subject to size, siting and the prior notification procedure. Here are the limits that decide it.
Class Q barn conversions: the qualifying tests
Most Class Q refusals happen before the prior approval matters are ever reached. Here are the qualifying tests a barn has to pass, and when a full planning application is the better route.
Field shelters: development, caravans or neither
A field shelter may be a building operation, a chattel or something in between. The answer depends on size, permanence and attachment, and on whether horses make the use agricultural.
On-farm incineration and animal by-product disposal
An on-farm incinerator clears three regimes, not one. This covers when planning permission is needed, how animal by-product approval works, the capacity thresholds that bring in a permit, and the alternatives.
Small local abattoirs and the planning case for one
Slaughtering is not agriculture in planning law, so no agricultural permitted development right helps. The use class question, the effluent route and the odour case decide most small abattoir applications.
Who applies: tenancies, ownership certificates and notices
You can apply for permission on land you do not own, but not without telling everyone with a qualifying interest. On tenanted farms the agricultural holdings limb is where applications come unstuck.
Menage planning: floodlighting, levels and drainage
Building a riding arena involves excavation, drainage and often lighting columns, which makes it development even on land already in equestrian use. Lighting is what usually gets refused.
Deer fencing, game rearing and shooting infrastructure
The permitted development right for fences stops at 2 metres, which is below a working deer fence. Game rearing buildings usually fall outside agricultural permitted development altogether.
Muck spreading, nuisance complaints and planning conditions
Planning control does not extend to spreading on agricultural land. The rules that bite are statutory nuisance, the farming rules for water, and conditions on a consented digester or livestock unit.
Not sure which documents your council will ask for?
Enter your postcode and PlanScope recommends the right reports for your project, then drafts them in minutes.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope