Reports needed for a caravan and camping site

Two consents govern a campsite, and they are issued by different teams at the same council. Planning permission decides whether the use is acceptable in that location. A site licence under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 decides how the site is laid out and run, covering spacing, roads, water, drainage and fire points. So the reports for a campsite planning application have to answer the planning question while producing a layout the licensing officer will also accept.

Planning permission against the site licence regime

The licence cannot be issued unless planning permission exists, which sets the order. But the licence conditions, drawn from the model standards, dictate pitch spacing, road widths and separation distances, and a layout drawn without reference to them gets permission and then has to be redrawn.

Get the model standards used by your authority before the layout is fixed. Spacing between caravans, distances to boundaries, the width and construction of internal roads, water point provision and fire point locations all follow from them.

Camping without caravans sits under a different licensing provision, and tents, pods and cabins are treated differently again depending on whether they are caravans in law, buildings, or neither. A pod delivered on a lorry and dropped on a base may be a caravan; one built in place is a building and is operational development in its own right.

Permitted development for temporary camping and its limits

Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits the temporary use of land for any purpose for a limited number of days in a calendar year, currently 28 days, with a lower limit for certain uses. That right underpins pop-up campsites, and it is a sound way to test demand before committing to an application.

Part 5 separately permits the use of land as a caravan site in circumstances where no site licence is required, which picks up the exemptions in Schedule 1 to the 1960 Act. Those include land of five acres or more taking a small number of caravans for limited periods, and sites operated by organisations holding an exemption certificate.

Three cautions. The day counts are per calendar year and per planning unit, and running two adjacent fields as one operation does not double them. Any structure left on the land outside the permitted period is a separate breach. And an Article 4 direction can remove these rights, which several National Park authorities and coastal districts have done.

Where the temporary route has been used for several seasons, expect the authority to argue that a material change of use has occurred, particularly where hardstanding, services or permanent buildings have appeared.

Landscape and visual assessment in open countryside

Campsites are visually awkward. The tents move, the touring caravans are pale and reflective, and the site is at its busiest exactly when the landscape is most used by others.

A Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, or a proportionate appraisal on a smaller site, should assess the site in occupation rather than empty. Show the pitches occupied, the parked cars, the amenity block and the access track. Assessments illustrated with photographs of an empty field invite the objection that they assessed the wrong thing.

Mitigation that works is internal subdivision with native hedging to break the site into smaller compartments, siting pitches below ridgelines, keeping the amenity building low and using dark materials, and controlling the colour and height of any permanent structures. What does not work is a single boundary hedge around a large open field.

In a National Landscape or National Park the bar is higher, and the case has to address the statutory purposes as well as the local plan policy on tourism development.

Access, visibility and internal circulation

The highway authority looks at three things: the visibility available at the site access in both directions, whether the access can accommodate a car towing a caravan without conflict, and whether the local road network can carry the seasonal traffic.

Provide a transport statement setting out the visibility splays achievable, the swept path for the largest expected vehicle, the internal road widths and turning provision, and the parking arrangement. Arrival and departure days concentrate movements, so describe the changeover pattern rather than a daily average.

Internal circulation matters for licensing as well as highways. One-way loops with passing places work better than dead ends, and refuse and delivery vehicles need somewhere to turn.

Foul drainage, water supply and welfare buildings

This is the technical work that decides whether a rural site is deliverable. Peak occupancy on a bank holiday weekend produces a foul load far above the average, and the amenity block has to be sized for it.

A Foul Sewage Assessment should set out the design population, the peak flow, the treatment method and the discharge point. Where a package treatment plant discharges to a watercourse or to ground, an environmental permit or a registered exemption is required, and the ground conditions have to support it. Percolation testing belongs at feasibility stage, not after permission.

Water supply from a private borehole needs testing and treatment, and mains connection costs on a remote site are substantial. Get a budget estimate early.

The amenity building itself is operational development and needs designing as a building, with accessible provision, laundry, washing up and chemical disposal. The same sequencing questions arise for any rural tourism enterprise, and the evidence overlaps heavily with a farm diversification holiday let.

Ecology, dark skies and seasonal restrictions

A Preliminary Ecological Appraisal is needed on any greenfield site, and biodiversity net gain applies. Campsites usually deliver gain comfortably, because the pitch area can be species-rich grassland rather than amenity mown turf, and hedgerow planting for internal screening counts twice.

Lighting is the issue that generates objections in rural areas. A Lighting Assessment should identify the environmental zone, keep column-mounted lighting out of the pitch areas, use low-level bollard or path lighting, and propose a curfew. Many authorities in dark sky areas will condition it tightly, and offering a restrained scheme yourself is better than defending a bright one.

Seasonal occupancy conditions are standard. Authorities commonly restrict the season and prohibit permanent residence, which protects against a holiday site becoming unauthorised housing. Ask for a season that suits the business, and be prepared to evidence why.

Flood risk and the caravan vulnerability classification

This catches more campsite applications than anything except access. In the flood risk vulnerability classification used in national guidance, caravans, mobile homes and park homes intended for permanent residential use are highly vulnerable, while sites for holiday or short-let caravans and camping are more vulnerable.

The consequence is direct. Highly vulnerable development should not be permitted in Flood Zone 3 and requires the Exception Test in Zone 2. More vulnerable development requires the Exception Test in Zone 3a and is not appropriate in the functional floodplain. So the same field can be acceptable for touring pitches occupied in summer and unacceptable for residential park homes.

Where the site is in Zone 2 or 3, the flood risk assessment has to address safe access and egress during the design event, a flood warning and evacuation plan, and the fact that occupants are visitors unfamiliar with the site. Conditions restricting occupation during the winter months are frequently used to manage the risk.

Documents for a farm diversification scheme

For a 30 pitch touring and camping site on farmland outside a designation, screened out of environmental impact assessment, an English authority will usually expect a Planning Statement addressing the rural economy and tourism policies, a Design and Access Statement with a licensed-standard layout, a landscape and visual appraisal with a planting scheme, a transport statement, a flood risk assessment where the site is not wholly in Flood Zone 1, a drainage strategy and foul sewage assessment, a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal with the statutory biodiversity metric, an arboricultural report where trees or hedgerows are affected, a lighting assessment, and a site management plan covering occupancy, refuse, noise and the season.

Add an economic statement where the local plan supports tourism development, and be specific about employment and visitor spend rather than asserting a benefit.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which of the 66 report types your site is likely to need, then send the drafts for professional review.

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. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.