Part 4 temporary use rights and the day limits

Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order lets you use land temporarily for almost any purpose, for a limited number of days in each calendar year, without applying for anything. Class B is the provision people mean when they talk about the 28 day rule, and the long-standing position is 28 days in total in any calendar year, of which no more than 14 may be used for a market or for motor car and motorcycle racing. That allowance has been temporarily increased in the past and has been the subject of proposals to change it, so check the current consolidated Order on legislation.gov.uk before planning a season around a figure.

Three features of the right catch people out more often than the number does: what land it applies to, how the days are counted, and what has to come off the land at the end.

What Class B actually permits

The right covers the use of land for any purpose, and the provision on that land of any moveable structure for the purposes of the permitted use. So a marquee, a stage, a portable lavatory block, a ticket booth and temporary fencing are all within the right, provided they are moveable and provided they are there for the permitted use.

The exclusion is the part most often missed. Class B does not apply to a building, or to land within the curtilage of a building. A farmyard beside a barn, a pub garden, a car park serving a shop: all of these sit within a curtilage and are outside the right. An open field with no building on it is the classic qualifying site.

There are further exclusions for certain uses on protected land. Motor vehicle and motorcycle racing, clay pigeon shooting and war games are excluded where the land is within a site of special scientific interest, and the Order should be read for the current list rather than relied on from memory.

Class B also does not override anything else. A licence for the sale of alcohol, a premises licence for regulated entertainment, a temporary events notice, a site licence for caravans, a road closure order and the environmental permitting regime all operate separately. A lawful temporary use can still be stopped by the absence of a licence.

Counting days across a calendar year

The allowance is cumulative across all temporary uses of that land in the calendar year, not a fresh allowance for each use. Four weekend events and a two week shoot come out of the same total.

Days reset on 1 January, which makes the period either side of New Year worth planning around. A ten day event spanning the turn of the year draws from two allowances.

A day on which the land is used for the temporary purpose at all is a day used. In practice councils treat days when moveable structures are on the land as part of the use, because the land is not then available for its ordinary purpose. Building in setup and takedown days is the prudent reading, and arguing about it after an enforcement officer has taken photographs is a poor position.

Where the land has several distinct parcels in different ownership or use, the allowance attaches to the planning unit rather than to the event. Splitting an event across two fields to double the allowance is the kind of arrangement that invites a close look at whether the fields are one unit.

What cannot be left behind

The right permits moveable structures for the purposes of the use. It does not permit operational development, so anything that amounts to a building operation falls outside it.

• Hardstanding, whether tarmac, concrete or compacted stone laid as a permanent surface.
• Foundations, bases or slabs for a structure.
• Permanent drainage, a sewage treatment plant or a buried service.
• Fixed buildings of any kind, including those sold as portable.
• Permanent access works to the highway, which are a separate matter entirely and may need a section 184 vehicle crossing or a section 278 agreement.

A temporary access through a hedge is the common failure. Removing a length of hedgerow may be development in its own right, may need consent under the Hedgerows Regulations 1997, and leaves evidence behind that the day count does not cover.

An illustrative example

This example is illustrative. A farmer uses a 4 hectare field beside a lane for a car boot sale on 12 Sundays, a three day food festival in August, and a two day Christmas tree sale in December.

The car boot sale is a market, so those 12 days come out of the 14 day market sub-limit. The food festival and the tree sale take five more days from the overall allowance, giving 17 days used against the 28 day total. He has headroom on the overall figure and two days left on the market sub-limit.

Then he levels and stones an area for parking, because the lane verge is churning up. That is operational development, outside Class B, and it needs planning permission regardless of how many days the field is used. The stone is also the thing an officer sees from the lane in February.

Markets, events and the other Part 4 classes

Part 4 contains more than Class B, and the other classes solve different problems.

Class A is worth knowing on any construction site, because it covers the site office, the welfare cabins and the material storage compound without a separate application. Class C matters because it confirms that the ordinary use can restart, which removes an argument that the temporary use became the lawful use.

When a temporary permission is the safer route

Three situations point towards applying rather than relying on Part 4.

The first is where the use will exceed the day allowance, or where it is close enough that a disputed day count becomes a real risk. A temporary planning permission for a defined period gives certainty and can be renewed.

The second is where physical works are needed. If the use requires a stoned access, a parking area, a drainage field or a permanent structure, the works need permission anyway, and dealing with the use and the works in one application is more sensible than splitting them.

The third is where neighbours are likely to object. A permission with conditions on hours, noise limits, numbers and parking is defensible. Where noise is the issue, a Noise Impact Assessment measured against the relevant standard carries far more weight than an assurance, and where traffic is the issue a short Transport Statement dealing with access, visibility and parking usually settles the highway authority. Conditions on hours can be varied later if the pattern of use changes, as our note on varying an opening hours condition explains.

Keep a day log either way. A simple dated record of each use, with photographs, is the evidence that answers an enforcement enquiry in one email. Without it the burden of showing the allowance was not exceeded falls on the person who cannot prove anything, and a Planning Statement prepared later has to work much harder.

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.