A pocket park or community garden on a vacant plot

Community garden planning permission is needed more often than community groups expect, and less often than they fear. Putting raised beds, a water butt and a few benches on a vacant plot and opening it two afternoons a week is usually a material change of use of the land, which means an application. Doing the same thing for 28 days a year under the temporary use right is not. The route you take depends on how permanent the project is, what structures go on the land, and whether the ground is clean enough for people to grow food in.

Whether a community garden needs permission at all

Development under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 includes the making of a material change in the use of land. A plot whose lawful use is a cleared former industrial site has a different use from an open space that the public visits, and the change between them is normally material.

Three features push a project across the line. Regular public access. Fixed structures. And an intensity of activity that neighbours would notice, such as volunteer sessions, deliveries or events.

Three features keep it below the line. Use by the landowner or a small group with no public access. No structures. And a short duration with a clear end date.

The honest answer for most projects is that permission is needed, and that applying costs less and takes less time than arguing about whether it was. Authorities are generally supportive of community food growing and open space, so the application is rarely the hard part.

Using the 28 day temporary use right

Class B of Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits the use of land for any purpose for not more than 28 days in total in any calendar year, together with the provision on the land of any moveable structure for the purposes of the permitted use. Markets and motor sport have a 14 day sub-limit within that allowance.

This is a real option for a pilot project. A growing group that opens the site on 20 Saturdays, uses only moveable planters and takes everything off at the end of each session, is within the class.

The limits bite quickly though. Twenty-eight days is four weeks of activity across a whole year. Raised beds that stay put are not moveable structures in any meaningful sense once they are full of soil and planted. And the right does not apply to land within the curtilage of a building, or where the use would conflict with other conditions already attached to the land.

Treat the class as a way to test the idea and build local support for a year, then apply.

Temporary and meanwhile use permissions

Where a developer owns a site with a permission it cannot yet build out, a time-limited permission for community use is often the pragmatic answer for both sides. National guidance on the use of planning conditions recognises limited period permissions, and authorities grant them routinely for meanwhile uses.

Two practical points shape the application. State the period you want and justify it against the landowner's intentions, because an authority asked for five years on a site with a live housing permission will usually grant the shorter period the owner agreed to. And address what happens at the end, because an officer who cannot see how the land returns to its previous condition will write a condition that the group then cannot meet.

A temporary permission does not establish a lawful use that survives the period. When it expires, the previous lawful use revives, and continuing beyond the date is a breach.

Land ownership, leases and the certificate you sign

You can apply for planning permission on land you do not own. What you cannot do is conceal that fact.

Article 13 of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015 requires an ownership certificate with every application. A group applying on land belonging to a council, a developer or a private owner signs Certificate B and serves notice on the owner, naming them. Where ownership cannot be traced after reasonable enquiry, Certificate D applies and the notice is advertised in a local newspaper.

Permission is not an occupation right. The group still needs a lease or a licence from the owner, and the terms of that document matter more than the permission does. Four terms are worth negotiating hard.

• Length of term, and whether there is a break clause the owner can exercise at short notice
• Who holds public liability insurance and at what level
• Responsibility for boundary fencing, fly-tipping and site security
• Reinstatement obligations at the end of the term, and whether structures can be left

Groups with charitable or community interest company status find leases easier to obtain, because an owner can grant to a legal entity rather than to individuals.

Structures, sheds and polytunnels

Structures are where an otherwise simple application gets complicated. A shed, a container, a polytunnel or a composting toilet is a building or structure, and none of the agricultural permitted development rights apply because the land is not an agricultural holding.

Include every structure in the application from the start, with dimensions, materials and position on a plan. Retrospective applications for a polytunnel that appeared after permission was granted are a standard enforcement complaint, and they damage the group's relationship with the authority at the point it most needs goodwill.

Polytunnels attract more scrutiny than their size suggests, because of their visual effect in an open setting. Lower structures, muted sheeting and a position away from the most open boundary usually answer the objection.

Contamination on former industrial land

Growing food on a former industrial plot is the issue that most deserves care, and the one community groups most often underestimate.

National guidance on land affected by contamination places the responsibility on the developer to establish that the land is suitable for the use proposed, and allotment or garden end use is one of the more sensitive uses in risk assessment terms because it involves direct soil contact and ingestion of home-grown produce. An authority will usually require a Phase 1 desk study to identify the site history and the potential contaminant sources, followed by Phase 2 intrusive sampling where the desk study identifies a credible risk.

Land contamination reports must be prepared by suitably qualified and experienced persons in accordance with the relevant British Standard, and a Contaminated Land Assessment draft is a starting point for that professional rather than a substitute for them. Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 provides the separate regime for land already determined as contaminated.

The practical mitigation on urban plots is often raised beds with imported certified topsoil, a separation membrane and a capping layer, with no in-ground cultivation. Say that in the application and the contamination objection usually softens, because the exposure pathway is broken by design.

Access, boundaries and designing against misuse

Objections to community gardens tend to be about what happens when nobody is there. Answer that in the layout.

Keep sight lines into the site from the street rather than screening it with a high solid fence, since natural surveillance does more for security than a barrier does. Put the gate where it is overlooked. Avoid hidden corners behind structures. Light only what needs lighting, and accept a curfew.

Bin provision, water supply and a hard standing for deliveries are the three functional items that get left off plans. Draw them.

Where the project forms part of a wider open space provision argument, an Open Space Assessment sets the proposal against the authority's own standards for quantity and accessibility, which helps where the plan allocates the site for something else.

Making the application as a community group

A workable pack is the application form with the correct certificate and copies of notices served, the location and block plans, a layout plan showing beds, paths, structures, bins, water and gate, elevations for any structure, a short management statement covering opening arrangements, volunteers and maintenance, the contamination position, and a Planning Statement that sets the proposal against the development plan's open space and community facility policies.

The fee regulations contain concessions for certain non-profit recreational uses, so ask the authority which fee applies rather than assuming the full rate. Some authorities also waive pre-application charges for community groups.

Evidence about who will use the land and how carries real weight in applications of this kind, in the same way that the evidence in a traveller pitch application has to describe occupation rather than just layout. Gather the letters of support before you submit, not after the objections arrive.

Browse the full index of report types to see which of them a vacant plot's constraints are likely to require, and enter the postcode on PlanScope for a first view of what sits over the site.

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