Farm tracks and hardstanding under Part 6 of the GPDO

A farm track is an engineering operation, which makes it development, which means it needs authority of some kind before a machine turns up. On an agricultural unit of 5 hectares or more, Part 6 Class A of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 can supply that authority, since it covers excavations and engineering operations reasonably necessary for the purposes of agriculture within the unit. Hardstanding for machinery, a concrete apron outside a building and a stone access track all sit within that description.

What it does not do is let you start. Forming or altering a private way is one of the operations that triggers prior notification, so the first step is a form to the council and a 28 day wait.

The prior notification step

Send the authority a written description of the proposed development, a plan showing the site, and the fee. The authority then has 28 days to determine whether its prior approval will be required as to siting and means of construction. Three outcomes follow.

It says prior approval is not required, and you proceed as described. It says prior approval is required, and you submit the details for approval. Or it says nothing within 28 days, in which case you may proceed in accordance with what you submitted.

The third outcome is the one people rely on and then mishandle. Proceeding after silence is only lawful if the development matches the details submitted. A track that moves 40 metres, gains a passing bay or changes construction is not the development that was notified, and the permitted development right does not cover it.

Describe the work properly in the notification. Length, width, construction build-up, surface finish, drainage arrangements and any structures. A two line description invites an authority to ask for prior approval simply because it cannot tell what is proposed.

The limits that apply

Class A carries several restrictions, and the ones that bite on tracks and hardstanding are these.

Ground area. The development is not permitted if the ground area covered by the works, together with other development carried out within the same unit in the preceding two years, exceeds 1,000 square metres. A long track eats that allowance quickly, and the two year lookback catches holdings that have been improving steadily.

Roads. Nothing may be carried out within 25 metres of a metalled part of a trunk or classified road, which is one reason where a track meets the public road is a separate question with its own answer.

Aerodromes. Within 3 kilometres of an aerodrome perimeter, the height limit drops to 3 metres, which affects any raised structure rather than the track surface itself.

Purpose. The works must be reasonably necessary for agriculture within that unit. A track built to standards far beyond what farm traffic requires invites the argument that its real purpose is something else, and authorities do make that argument when a diversification proposal follows a year later.

Units between 0.4 and 5 hectares fall under Class B, which is considerably narrower and does not permit new buildings. Check the class text rather than assuming the Class A limits apply.

Where the planning answer is no

Several situations take the work outside Part 6 entirely.

• The track serves a non-agricultural use, whether a farm shop, holiday lets, equestrian livery or an events business. Mixed purpose does not save it.
• The land is not an agricultural unit of the required size, or the applicant does not hold enough of it.
• The holding is in a National Park, National Landscape or the Broads, where Part 6 is modified and prior approval requirements are wider.
• The works affect a scheduled monument, where scheduled monument consent is a separate criminal offence to omit.
• The land is a site of special scientific interest, where operations likely to damage the special interest need Natural England's consent.

Where a full application is needed, a short planning statement explaining the agricultural purpose, the traffic the track will carry and the landscape treatment does most of the work. Councils refuse rural tracks on landscape grounds far more often than on principle, and a surface colour and an edge treatment that disappear into the field pattern answer most of the objection.

Materials, and the waste problem

Building a track from imported crushed concrete and brick is common practice and it is regulated. Using waste derived material in construction requires a registered exemption or a permit, with limits on quantity, on the type of material and on its suitability for the purpose.

The failure mode is familiar. A contractor offers free hardcore, the material turns out to contain plasterboard, asbestos cement fragments or tarred road planings, and what began as a track becomes a contaminated land case with a remediation cost and an enforcement file. Ask for the waste transfer documentation and the material description before anything is tipped.

Silt is the other one. A newly formed track sheds fines during the first winter, and where it drains to a ditch that reaches a watercourse, the farming rules for water apply. Cut-off drains, silt traps and a sensible camber cost far less than a pollution incident.

The consents that sit alongside

Hedgerows deserve a line. Removing a stretch of hedge to form an access needs a hedgerow removal notice to the council, and removal without one is an offence. It also puts an otherwise exempt scheme back into the biodiversity gain regime where a planning application is involved, since linear habitat is counted separately.

An illustrative notification

Illustrative example. A 140 hectare arable unit forming a 320 metre track from the yard to a field entrance, 3.5 metres wide, in crushed limestone over a geotextile, with a piped crossing of a field ditch. The ground area is well within the 1,000 square metre allowance. Prior notification is submitted with a plan, a cross section and a description of the construction. Land drainage consent is applied for separately for the ditch crossing. Figures are illustrative.

Two habits prevent most problems here. Notify with enough detail that the council can say yes without asking questions. And keep the purpose agricultural, in fact as well as on paper, because a track built for a future barn conversion is a track that will be looked at again when a Class Q barn conversion or extending a curtilage in the countryside comes up.

Enter the holding postcode on PlanScope to check the constraints on a farm before you notify.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.