Pick your own farm planning: retail and field parking
Growing the crop is agriculture. Selling it to visitors and parking their cars in a field for a whole summer are not, and both need to be dealt with in the application.
Growing fruit is agriculture. Selling it to members of the public who have walked into your field and picked it themselves is not, and parking their cars on grass for 14 weeks a summer is a third thing again. A pick your own farm planning permission application usually needs to deal with both the retail element and the parking, because those are the two activities that take the operation outside the definition of agriculture in section 336 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
Many PYO operations have run for decades without anyone asking the question. That changes the moment a neighbour complains about queueing on the lane, or the council receives a complaint about a sign.
Whether picking and selling remains agricultural
Use of land for agriculture does not constitute development, so growing the crop needs no permission. The courts have long accepted that selling produce grown on the holding, from the holding, can be ancillary to the agricultural use where the scale is modest and the produce comes from the holding itself.
Two things break that link. Selling bought-in goods, which is the usual drift from a produce table to a farm shop with milk, jam and coffee. And a scale of visitor activity that makes retail the dominant character of the use rather than an adjunct to farming.
Picking by the customer sits in an interesting position. No produce is being transported, processed or displayed, and the activity in the field is harvesting. But the customer is a member of the public on a commercial visit, and the car park, the weighing shed, the card terminal and the toilets exist for them. Taken together those facilities are development, even where the picking is not.
The practical test the officer will apply is character. Describe the operation honestly and in numbers: expected visitors on a peak Saturday, weeks of operation, the proportion of turnover from your own produce, and what else is sold.
Retail sale of produce and the policy test
Where the retail element needs permission, the relevant policy is the rural diversification or farm shop policy in the adopted local plan. Those policies usually ask whether the proposal is of a scale appropriate to the holding, whether existing buildings are reused, and whether a proportion of goods sold are produced on the farm.
Some plans fix that proportion by condition, commonly expressed as a percentage of floorspace or turnover devoted to produce from the holding. Check the policy wording before you design, because a condition tying sales to on-farm produce constrains the business model for the life of the permission.
National policy supports sustainable rural economic growth and farm diversification, and a well-argued PYO proposal rarely fails on principle. It fails on access.
Field parking and when it becomes development
Using a field for parking is a material change of use. The temporary use right in Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits the use of land for any purpose for a limited number of days in a calendar year, which is 28 days in total, with a lower limit of 14 days for certain purposes.
For a PYO season running from late May to early September, weekends alone will exhaust 28 days before August. So the parking almost always needs permission, and that permission is where the highway authority's interest lies.
Three features decide whether field parking is acceptable:
- A surface that works in wet weather. Grass with a reinforcement mesh or a geotextile and stone grid holds up far better than bare turf, and the authority will ask what happens after three days of rain in July.
- Internal circulation that keeps arriving and departing vehicles apart, with a one-way loop and marshalling at peak times.
- A capacity that matches the peak demand, not the average. Overflow onto the lane is the complaint that generates the enforcement case.
Our note on using a field for camping through the summer works through the same 28 day arithmetic in a different setting, and the lessons on surfacing transfer directly.
Access visibility and queueing on the lane
The highway authority will measure visibility at the access in both directions and compare it with the stopping sight distance derived from recorded vehicle speeds. On a national speed limit rural road, the required splay is long, and achieving it usually means cutting back a hedge on land you control or entering a highway agreement.
Queueing is the issue that does not appear on the drawing. If 40 cars arrive in the first 20 minutes of opening and the entrance has a single gate, the tail sits on the carriageway. The answer is physical: a deep entrance throat that holds several cars clear of the highway, a gate set back from the edge of the carriageway, and a marshall at the entrance on peak days.
A Transport Statement with a swept path for the largest delivery vehicle, a visibility splay drawing and a note on peak arrival profiles answers most of what the authority will ask. Where the operation is larger, the authority may want a Parking Survey covering the lane itself.
| Element | What the authority usually wants |
|---|---|
| Visibility splay | Derived from measured speeds, not the speed limit |
| Entrance throat | Depth to hold queueing vehicles clear of the carriageway |
| Parking surface | Reinforced grass or bound surface usable in wet weather |
| Circulation | One-way loop with separated entry and exit where possible |
| Signage | Advance warning signs, which may need separate consent |
Advertisement consent is a separate regime. Temporary signs on the verge frequently breach it, and roadside banners are the enforcement complaint councils receive most often about PYO operations.
Toilets, catering and waste at peak times
Toilets sized for a weekend peak push the foul load beyond a domestic septic tank, which means a package treatment plant and a discharge that meets the general binding rules or holds a permit. A Foul Sewage Assessment setting out the calculated peak load and the proposed plant answers the question before it becomes a condition.
Catering changes the character of the use again. A coffee trailer serving customers who are already on site is a small step; a 60 seat café is a separate planning unit with its own parking, ventilation and waste requirements. Decide which you are applying for and describe it precisely in the application.
Waste matters more than operators expect. Punnets, packaging and food waste at volume need enclosed storage with vehicle access, and on a rural site with gulls and vermin the environmental health officer will want to see it designed rather than improvised.
An illustrative example
Take an illustrative case: a 60 hectare arable and soft fruit holding opens 9 hectares for PYO from 1 June to 10 September, six days a week. Peak Saturday demand is estimated at 120 vehicles across the day, with 35 on site at once. The application proposes a 50 space reinforced grass car park, a 12 metre entrance throat, 2.4 by 160 metre visibility splays achieved by setting back the roadside hedge, a weighing and payment shed of 24 m², four toilets served by a package treatment plant, and an enclosed bin compound. Conditions limit the season, the hours to 9am to 6pm and the goods sold to produce grown on the holding plus ancillary refreshments. These figures are illustrative and not from a real application.
Seasonal operation and reinstatement
A seasonal permission is often easier to obtain than a year-round one, and it suits the business anyway. Offer the season rather than waiting to have it imposed, and define it by dates rather than by crop.
Where the car park reverts to agricultural use out of season, say so and explain how: mesh left in place, grass allowed to recover, temporary signage and demarcation removed. That reinstatement commitment answers the visual objection directly, and it is the sort of detail that converts an officer's neutral report into a positive one.
Keep records of visitor numbers, vehicle counts and complaints from the first season. They are the evidence for a later section 73 application to extend the season or increase capacity.
Conditions on days, hours and goods sold
Expect conditions on the operating season, daily hours, the number of parking spaces, the goods that may be sold, the provision of the access and visibility splays before first use, and removal of temporary structures at the end of each season. Some authorities add a condition requiring a marshalling plan on peak days.
Read the goods condition closely before you accept it. A condition restricting sales to produce grown on the holding stops you buying in fruit for a poor year, which may matter more than anything else in the decision notice. If the wording is too tight, negotiate it at committee stage rather than applying to vary it later.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a farm diversification application is likely to need before you brief a highways engineer.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Does a pick your own operation need planning permission?
Growing the crop is agriculture and needs none. The retail sale to visiting customers, the car park, the payment building and the toilets are development, and the seasonal use of a field for parking exceeds the temporary use allowance. Most established operations need a permission covering the visitor and parking elements even where the picking itself does not.
How many days can I park cars in a field without permission?
The temporary use right in Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 allows the use of land for any purpose for 28 days in total in a calendar year, with a lower allowance of 14 days for certain purposes. A PYO season running from June to September exhausts that on weekends alone.
What surface does a seasonal car park need?
Something that works in wet weather. Reinforced grass with a mesh or a geotextile and stone grid performs far better than bare turf and still reverts to grass out of season. The highway authority will ask what happens after several days of summer rain, because vehicles stuck in a field end up queueing on the lane.
Will the council restrict what I can sell?
Often, yes. Many rural diversification policies expect a proportion of goods sold to be produced on the holding, and that can be imposed as a condition expressed by floorspace or turnover. Read the wording before accepting it, because a tight condition stops you buying in fruit to cover a poor growing season.
Do roadside signs need separate consent?
Usually. Advertisement control is a separate regime from planning permission, and temporary banners or verge signs frequently breach it. Signs on the highway verge may also need highway authority consent. This is the enforcement complaint councils receive most often about seasonal rural attractions, so deal with signage in the application.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.