Consenting a forestry building and access track

A new building or a new track on land used for forestry usually does not need a full planning application. It needs prior notification under Part 6 of Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, which grants permission for forestry buildings and private ways subject to limits, provided you first apply to the local planning authority for a determination as to whether its prior approval is required for the siting, design and appearance of a building, or the siting and means of construction of a way.

That is a much lighter process than a planning application. It is also easy to lose, because the right carries conditions that a timber yard or a public car park will fail.

The forestry right and its limits

The right covers development on land used for forestry, including afforestation, where the development is reasonably necessary for the purposes of forestry on that land. Buildings, private ways, and operations to win materials for those ways are all included.

The limits that catch people out:

• the building or works must be designed for the purposes of forestry, so a workshop for a joinery business is outside the right
• dwellings are excluded entirely
• there are height restrictions where the land is close to an aerodrome
• no part of the development may sit within 25 metres of the metalled part of a trunk or classified road
• the right attaches to land in forestry use, so recently acquired bare land with a planting intention needs care

Read the Part 6 wording before you commit to a position. An enterprise that mixes forestry with firewood processing for sale, or with a sawmill taking in third-party timber, has drifted into a use that is no longer forestry, and the right falls away for the building that serves it.

Prior notification for a track or a building

The procedure is a short form application for a determination, with a plan showing the site and a description of the proposed development. The authority then has a set period in which to tell you whether its prior approval is required for the specified details. If it does not respond within that period, you may proceed as notified, and if it does require approval you submit the details for approval.

The authority cannot refuse the principle. It can only control those details, which is why the notification should present a siting and construction proposal that is already defensible rather than a bare line on a plan. A plan at a sensible scale, a cross-section of the track, a specification for surfacing and a note on culverts answers most of what a case officer will ask.

Ancient woodland and the buffer

Ancient woodland is treated as an irreplaceable habitat in national policy, and a track that clips its edge is the quickest way to turn a notification into a problem. Natural England and the Forestry Commission standing advice for planning decisions recommends a buffer of at least 15 metres between development and the boundary of ancient woodland, with a larger buffer where the works are more harmful.

Check the ancient woodland inventory before you set the alignment, and check for veteran and ancient trees separately, since individual trees outside designated woodland carry their own protection in policy. Root protection areas calculated under BS 5837:2012 will often be the binding constraint on a track alignment through established woodland, and they are wider than most people expect.

Protected species in a working wood

A working wood is habitat. Dormice, bats roosting in veteran trees, badgers, red squirrels in their remaining range and nesting birds between March and August all constrain the timing and the route.

The sequence that avoids trouble is a preliminary ecological appraisal first, then route selection, then any species-specific survey the appraisal recommends, then the notification. Doing it in the other order produces a notified alignment that has to be abandoned. Where a licence is needed, surveys and any mitigation licence require a suitably licensed ecologist, and an AI-assisted draft is a starting point for that professional rather than a substitute.

Felling is a separate control. A felling licence from the Forestry Commission under the Forestry Act 1967 is required for most felling above small volume thresholds, and the Environmental Impact Assessment (Forestry) Regulations regime covers afforestation, deforestation, forest roads and quarries in forests above thresholds. Neither is dealt with by the planning notification, and both have their own timescales.

Visual impact of a track in open country

A forest track reads in the wider view as a pale line, and it keeps reading that way for years. Three design decisions govern how much it shows: alignment, surfacing colour, and how the cut and fill are treated at the edges.

Follow contours rather than cutting straight up a slope. Specify a surfacing stone that weathers to a colour close to the local geology. And grade the batters back and seed them rather than leaving raw cut faces, because a vertical cut face stays visible for a decade. In a National Park or similar designated area, expect the authority to require prior approval of siting and construction, and prepare for that rather than hoping to proceed by default.

Surfacing, drainage and watercourse crossings

Track drainage decides whether the track survives and whether the stream below it silts up. Cross drains at intervals matched to the gradient, a camber or crossfall that sheds water to the downhill side, and sediment traps before any discharge to a watercourse are the basics.

Crossings need their own consents. Works affecting an ordinary watercourse need consent from the lead local flood authority under the Land Drainage Act 1991, and works in, over or under a main river need an environmental permit from the Environment Agency. Culvert sizing, bed level and whether fish passage is maintained are the technical points those bodies will raise. Our note on permission for a pontoon or slipway on a river covers the parallel consenting pattern where works sit in the channel itself.

What to submit with the notification

A notification that reads as a considered proposal gets dealt with quickly. One that reads as a placeholder attracts a requirement for prior approval and a longer timetable.

1. A location plan at 1:2500 and a site plan at 1:500 showing the building or the full track alignment.
2. Elevations and a floor plan for a building, with materials and finish named.
3. A cross-section for a track, showing width, construction build-up and drainage.
4. A short statement explaining why the development is reasonably necessary for forestry on that land.
5. Evidence of the forestry use, such as a management plan or felling licence history.
6. An ecological appraisal where the route passes through or near woodland of any age.
7. Details of any watercourse crossing and the separate consent being sought.

Point four is the one authorities test. Link the building or the track to specific operations: extraction routes, timber stacking areas, machinery storage, or access for a thinning programme described in the management plan.

Where a scheme also involves diversification into non-forestry uses, those elements need their own planning applications and should be kept separate from the notification. Seasonal recreational uses, such as using a field for camping through the summer, are assessed on entirely different policy.

To see which supporting documents a woodland site is likely to need, including ecology and drainage work, browse the report types or enter the postcode on PlanScope and work through the guided questions.

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