Markets on private land and the 14 day sub-limit

Running a market on private land for 14 days a year needs no planning permission. Running it for 15 does. Class B of Part 4 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits the use of land for any purpose for up to 28 days in a calendar year, and within that total no more than 14 days may be used for holding a market or for motor car and motorcycle racing. That sub-limit is the number that governs car boot sales, farmers markets, craft fairs and street food events held on a yard, a field or a car park.

The temporary use allowance and the market sub-limit

Two numbers sit inside one allowance. Twenty-eight days for any temporary use of the land, with a market able to take up to 14 of them.

So a site can host a market on 14 days and some other temporary use, a circus, a camping event, a car show, on the remaining 14. It cannot host a market on 20 days by borrowing from the general allowance.

The class also permits the provision on the land of any moveable structure for the purposes of the permitted use, which is what makes stalls, gazebos and a marquee lawful without a separate application.

Three exclusions remove the right altogether.

• Land that is a building, or land within the curtilage of a building. A yard enclosed by warehouse walls may fall within a curtilage, which is a question of fact rather than of fencing.
• Use as a caravan site, which has its own regime.
• Uses on a site of special scientific interest that are specifically excluded, and anything involving an advertisement displayed in breach of the advertisement regulations.

The allowance was temporarily extended during 2020 and 2021 by amending orders that have since lapsed, so work from the current text of the Order rather than from a recollection of the pandemic position.

Counting days across a calendar year

The counting is where enforcement cases start, and the rules are less forgiving than organisers assume.

Days are counted per calendar year, running from 1 January, not per rolling 12 months and not per trading season. A market running every Saturday from October uses its 14 days by early January of the following year, with a fresh allowance starting at the same moment.

Days are counted per planning unit, not per event or per organiser. Two different operators each running seven market days on the same field have used the 14 days between them, and the landowner is the person the authority will approach.

Set-up and clear-down are the practical trap. An officer counting days will look at whether the land was used for the purpose on a given day, and a Friday spent craning in stalls and marking out pitches is capable of being counted. The safe assumption is that it counts, which means a two-day event consumes three or four days of allowance rather than two.

Keep a written record. A diary of dates, with photographs and the market's own trading records, is the evidence that answers an enforcement enquiry, and the burden of showing that the use fell within the class sits with the person relying on it.

Stalls, gazebos and when a structure becomes development

Moveable structures are permitted. Buildings are not.

A trestle table, a pop-up gazebo, a demountable stall frame and a marquee erected for the event and taken down afterwards are all moveable. A timber stall bolted to a concrete pad, a permanent canopy over a row of pitches, or a serving hut left in place between events is a building, and placing it needs permission in its own right.

The same reasoning catches infrastructure. Laying a permanent hard surface for parking, installing a water supply standpipe, forming a new access or putting in drainage are operations rather than uses, and the temporary use class does not authorise them. A field that needs an engineered access to work as a market venue has a planning application in its future whatever the day count says.

Mobile catering units are usually fine as vehicles, but a unit that stays on site permanently, is skirted and connected to services, stops looking like a vehicle fairly quickly.

Street trading consent is a separate regime

This is the point that catches people who have read the planning rules carefully and nothing else.

Street trading controls under Schedule 4 to the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 apply in streets the authority has designated as licence or consent streets. The definition of a street for those purposes extends to areas to which the public have access without payment, which can include private land such as a car park or forecourt.

So a market on a private yard that the public walk onto freely may need street trading consent from the authority's licensing team even though planning permission is not required. The two departments do not necessarily tell each other, and the consent regime has its own fees, hours and conditions.

Historic market rights add a further layer in some towns, where a charter or statutory market franchise can restrict a rival market within a prescribed distance. It is an unusual objection but it does arise, and the authority's markets or estates team will know whether it applies.

Highways, parking and the traffic question

Planning permission may not be needed here. The highway authority still has powers and the police still have views.

Three issues recur. Parking, where a market generating more vehicles than the site can hold pushes overflow onto verges and residential streets. Access, where a field gateway with poor visibility becomes a conflict point with queueing traffic. And signage, where directional signs on the highway need the highway authority's consent and advertisement rules apply.

Where traffic management on the public highway is needed, a temporary traffic regulation order under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 is the mechanism, and it takes weeks rather than days to arrange.

A Transport Statement is not required for a permitted temporary use, but producing a short traffic management plan voluntarily is the most effective way to keep the highway authority out of the objection column when you later apply for something permanent.

Waste, food registration and environmental health

Environmental health will take an interest regardless of the planning position.

Food businesses trading at the market must register with the local authority, and the requirement is to register at least 28 days before trading begins. That duty sits on each trader rather than on the organiser, but authorities expect organisers to check it.

Waste is the organiser's problem. Commercial waste from traders cannot go into household bins, and a duty of care applies to its transfer. Set out the number of containers, who empties them and where, and keep the transfer notes. A Waste Management Strategy is the right document when a permanent permission is sought, and a simpler written arrangement will do for a temporary use.

Toilets, hand washing for food traders, noise from generators and amplified music, and cooking odour from hot food units are the other four items an environmental health officer will raise. Deal with them before the first event rather than after the first complaint.

Moving to a permanent permission

Once a market works, 14 days stops being enough, and the application that follows is a change of use.

Three parts of the case matter. The retail effect, where a market selling comparison goods can require a sequential test and, above the applicable threshold, a Retail Impact Assessment assessing effects on the nearest centre. The highways and parking case, backed by a survey of actual demand taken from the temporary events. And the amenity case, covering hours, noise, litter and traffic on the surrounding streets.

Use the permitted days to build the evidence. Traffic counts, parking occupancy, visitor numbers and a complaints log from the temporary events are better evidence than any forecast, and a Planning Statement built on your own operating data is harder to argue with than one built on assumptions.

Enter the postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a permanent market use at that site is likely to need.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. A lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that a use is lawful, so 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.