Documents for a temporary consent application

A temporary consent is an ordinary planning application with one extra job to do: you have to justify the period. Councils grant temporary planning permission by attaching a condition under section 72(1)(b) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 that requires the use to stop and, usually, the land to be restored by a stated date. The documents for a temporary planning permission application are therefore the normal pack for the use you are proposing, plus a written case for the length of time sought and a reinstatement method you can actually deliver.

What a temporary consent is not is a way of getting a borderline scheme through. Planning Practice Guidance is blunt about this, and so are inspectors.

When a temporary consent is the right application

Three situations suit a limited period, and only three. A use that is inherently finite, such as a site compound, a marketing suite or a decant building while a permanent building is refurbished. A use occupying land that already has a permission or allocation for something else, where the owner wants income in the interim. And a use where the acceptability of the impact really does depend on duration, such as an outdoor seating area on a forecourt that would be unacceptable all year but is tolerable for a defined season.

If the only reason you are asking for a temporary period is that the proposal would be refused permanently, the application will usually fail anyway. A condition limiting the life of a permission is not a cure for harm. Where a use is short enough, check first whether it falls within the temporary use rights in Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015, which allow land to be used for a limited number of days in each calendar year without a planning application. The number of days was increased by amendment in 2022 and differs for some uses, so read the current wording of the class rather than relying on a figure you remember.

Justifying the period you are asking for

Ask for a period you can defend with documents, not a round number. The written justification sits in the planning statement and should tie the date to something external.

• A construction programme with the practical completion date for the permanent scheme.
• A lease term or licence period for the land.
• A funding or grant window, where one exists.
• The expiry of an existing permission the land is being held for.
• A trial period with a defined review, where the applicant wants to test demand.

Two or three years is the commonest grant for a meanwhile use. Five years is routine for a construction compound on a long build. Ten years and beyond starts to look permanent to an officer, and you should expect the full evidence base at that point.

Be specific about what happens on the last day. An officer reading "the use will cease when no longer required" has no date to condition and will either refuse or impose a shorter period than you wanted.

Reinstatement and the conditions that follow

The restoration obligation is where temporary consents go wrong years later. Councils normally condition that on or before the stated date the use shall stop, any structures brought onto the land shall be removed, and the land shall be restored to a condition specified in an approved scheme.

Submit that restoration scheme with the application rather than leaving it to a condition that has to be discharged before the use starts. It should say what is being removed, what is being left, how surfaces are broken out, where material goes, and what the finished levels and seeding or surfacing will be. On a greenfield or garden site, say how topsoil will be stored and reinstated.

Where the land has sensitive ground conditions the restoration case needs more than a method statement. A site in a groundwater Source Protection Zone will attract comments from the Environment Agency on anything involving fuel storage, portable welfare units or hardstanding, and those comments usually land on the restoration detail. Similarly, a compound or temporary building on a site crossed by a public sewer needs the easement respected in the layout, because the undertaker will not allow a structure over the pipe even for two years.

What the evidence base can safely be scaled down to

A shorter period does change the proportionate level of evidence, and officers accept that. It does not remove anything that is a legal requirement.

The two that catch people are ecology and biodiversity net gain. A licensed ecologist is legally required for protected species survey work and for any mitigation licence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, and a two-year use does not change that. The biodiversity gain condition applies to planning permissions subject to the statutory exemptions and transitional provisions, so check whether your application falls inside one rather than assuming a temporary use is outside the regime. You can browse the full list of report types to see which of these your project is likely to trigger.

An illustrative example. A café operator wants to put a timber pod and eight covers on a vacant corner plot that has an unimplemented permission for flats. The pack is a planning statement setting the three-year period against the expiry of that permission, a site plan with the pod and the seating, a short noise and extraction note dealing with the kitchen, a transport note on servicing and refuse, a drainage note on the surface water from the new hardstanding, and a restoration scheme returning the plot to bare, seeded ground. No design and access statement is required because the thresholds are not met.

Renewal, and why it is riskier than it looks

A temporary permission is not renewed. You make a fresh application for the same use, and it is determined against the policies in force then, not the policies that applied first time round. Local plans change. So does national policy.

The council is also entitled to take the planning history into account, including whether the restoration obligation on the earlier consent was complied with. Applicants who let a compound sprawl, or who never removed the signage from the last temporary consent, find that the second application is much harder.

Keep a dated photographic record through the period, keep the approved restoration scheme on file, and apply for the replacement consent at least six months before expiry so that a refusal still leaves you time to appeal or to wind the use down lawfully.

Pulling the submission together

1. Confirm the use is a material change of use at all, and check Part 4 of the GPDO before applying.
2. Fix the end date and write down the external fact that justifies it.
3. Prepare the normal pack for the use, scoped to the real duration and hours.
4. Prepare the restoration scheme as a submitted document with drawings.
5. Check the local validation list for the authority, because local lists go beyond the national requirements.
6. Say in the covering material which conditions you are content with, including the cessation date and the restoration trigger.

Offering the conditions yourself shortens the determination. Officers like an applicant who has already written the condition they were going to impose.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope produces AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission, and for specialist technical reports qualified professional input may be required. PlanScope does not guarantee planning approval. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports your site is likely to need.