Consenting a shisha lounge or outdoor smoking shelter

Shisha lounge planning permission turns on two questions that pull in opposite directions. Smoke-free legislation means customers can only smoke in a structure that is not substantially enclosed, which pushes the design towards open sides. Planning policy on amenity means the smoke and odour have to be kept away from neighbours, which pushes towards enclosure and extraction. Resolving that tension in the drawings is the whole application.

The same tension applies to an ordinary outdoor smoking shelter behind a pub, on a smaller scale and with less odour. Both are worth treating as a change of use question first and a building question second.

Classifying the use and whether it is sui generis

Start with what the premises will actually do. Where food and drink for consumption on the premises is the main activity and shisha is a sideline, the use may fall within Class E(b) of the Use Classes Order 1987 as amended. Where the draw is the shisha itself, with tea and snacks around it, the use does not fit neatly into any class and is better treated as sui generis.

That distinction decides whether you need permission at all. A move within Class E needs none. A move from Class E to a sui generis use is a material change of use requiring a planning application, and so is a move from a restaurant to a predominantly shisha operation.

The position varies between authorities and depends on the facts, so put the question to the council in a pre-application enquiry and describe the operation honestly: hours, covers, the proportion of turnover from shisha, whether there is a kitchen, whether alcohol is served.

A hot food takeaway element adds another layer, because takeaway use is itself sui generis following the 2020 amendments to the Use Classes Order.

Enclosure design and the smoke-free legislation overlap

Under the Health Act 2006 and the regulations made under it, smoking is prohibited in enclosed and substantially enclosed premises. A structure counts as substantially enclosed where it has a ceiling or roof and the openings in the walls amount to less than half of the total wall area. Doors, windows and other fittings that can be opened or shut are disregarded when the openings are measured.

So a lawful shisha area needs openings of at least half the wall area, with the roof in place. That is a measurable test, and the application drawings should show it being met: an elevation for each face, the area of each opening, the total wall area and the resulting percentage.

Two design consequences follow. First, retractable or sliding screens do not help, because they are disregarded in the calculation. Second, an awning over a yard with two solid boundary walls may already be substantially enclosed before you build anything.

Councils and environmental health officers read these drawings closely, and an application that shows a cosy enclosed room with shisha pipes in it invites a refusal on two fronts at once.

Odour and smoke dispersal to neighbours

Charcoal smoke and flavoured tobacco produce an odour that carries, and in a terrace with flats above it is the single most likely source of objection. Open sides mean the smoke leaves at ground level rather than through a flue, which is exactly the opposite of a restaurant kitchen.

Where mechanical extraction is used for an internal area, the submission needs a Ventilation/Extraction Statement setting out the system, the filtration, the duct route and the discharge point. Where the shisha area is open-sided, the honest answer is that extraction cannot do much, and the case has to be made on separation distance, orientation, screening and hours instead.

On a sensitive site an Odour Assessment is worth preparing even where the council has not asked for one, because it forces the question of where the plume goes and gives the officer something to condition.

Illustrative example

A rear yard behind a parade, 7 m deep, with first-floor flats above the parade and a two-storey terrace backing onto it. A canopy with two open sides satisfies the smoke-free test. Moving the seating to the open end of the yard, raising the boundary screen and ending shisha service at 22:30 is a more persuasive package than any filter specification, because the receptors are 8 m away and above.

Charcoal handling, storage and fire risk

Charcoal is lit somewhere, and that somewhere needs showing on the plans. A dedicated lighting station with non-combustible surfaces, mechanical extraction and separation from seating is standard. Burning charcoal in an enclosed space produces carbon monoxide, which is a health and safety matter rather than a planning one, but the layout that satisfies it is a planning drawing.

Storage of charcoal and disposal of hot ash both need designated, fire-resistant provision. Expect the fire authority to take an interest where the premises adjoin residential accommodation.

Fire safety duties under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 sit alongside planning rather than inside it, and an operator who has thought them through tends to produce a better plan.

Noise from patrons and late hours

Patron noise in an open-sided structure is noise outdoors. There is no facade to attenuate it, and conversation at 23:00 in a yard surrounded by bedroom windows is a genuine amenity issue rather than a technical one.

Plant noise is the measurable part, and a Noise Impact Assessment using the BS 4142 method will deal with extraction fans and condensers. Patron noise needs a different treatment: predicted numbers, dispersal arrangements, supervision, a smoking and shisha area management plan, and realistic hours.

Hours are usually where the application is won or lost. An operator asking for 02:00 on a site with flats above will be refused. An operator offering 23:00 weekdays and midnight at weekends, with the outdoor area cleared 30 minutes earlier, is negotiating.

Highway and footway encroachment

Tables and chairs on the public footway need a pavement licence from the council under the Business and Planning Act 2020 regime, which the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 placed on a permanent footing. That is a separate consent from planning permission, with its own application, fee and consultation period.

One national condition matters here: pavement licences carry a smoke-free seating requirement, so the furniture licensed on the highway cannot be used for smoking. A shisha operator who assumes the pavement area can take the overflow has misread the regime.

Any structure on or over the highway, including a canopy oversailing the footway, needs separate permission from the highway authority as well.

Waste and cleaning regimes

Ash, used foil, disposable mouthpieces and charcoal bags generate more waste than a comparable café, and councils increasingly ask for the storage calculation. Show the bin store, the number and size of containers, the collection arrangement and the route from the yard to the collection point.

Street cleaning around the entrance is the detail that gets conditioned after complaints. Offering it at the outset costs nothing.

Conditions on hours, enclosure openness and extraction

Expect a tight set, and draft suggestions yourself rather than leaving it to the committee report. The ones that recur are a condition fixing the hours of use of the outdoor area separately from the interior, a condition requiring the openings to be permanently maintained at the approved percentage of wall area, a condition requiring the extraction system to be installed to the approved specification and maintained, a management plan condition covering dispersal and supervision, and a condition restricting the number of covers outdoors.

The openness condition is the one operators breach, usually by fitting clear PVC blinds in winter. That converts the area into substantially enclosed premises, which breaches both the planning condition and the smoke-free legislation at the same time.

A draft Planning Statement can set out the use class analysis, the enclosure calculation and the amenity case in the structure a case officer expects, with the site facts it does not hold flagged rather than invented. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports the premises are likely to need.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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