Reports needed for a glamping site on a paddock

A glamping site on a paddock is a change of use of agricultural land, usually to a mixed or holiday use, and often operational development as well if the units are fixed. The glamping site planning documents a council will expect follow from that, and one of them catches people out: a change of use to a camping or caravan site is the express exception to the rule that changes of use escape the flood risk sequential test. So a paddock in Flood Zone 2 needs a sequential test even though nothing is being built in flood terms.

What the proposal is in planning terms

Start by deciding what you are applying for, because the answer drives everything else.

If the units are tents, yurts or trailer-based caravans brought on and taken off, the proposal is a change of use of the land. If the pods are delivered on a lorry and craned onto a concrete or screw-pile base with services connected, they are likely to be buildings, and you are applying for a change of use and operational development together. The tests the courts apply are size, degree of permanence and physical attachment to the ground, and a 4 metre by 7 metre insulated pod on a slab with mains drainage satisfies all three.

Two permitted development points are worth knowing. Part 4 Class B of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 allows the temporary use of land for most purposes for up to 28 days in a calendar year, which covers a seasonal campsite but not a permanent business. Check the current wording, since Part 4 has been amended repeatedly. And a caravan site needs a site licence under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 in addition to planning permission, with exemptions in that Act for some small and certificated sites.

If a seasonal trial is what you want, a temporary consent is a legitimate route, and the evidence that supports one is set out in documents for a temporary consent application.

The documents every application of this kind needs

For a modest site of up to about ten pitches in open countryside, the core submission is:

1. Location plan with the red line covering the pitches, access, parking and drainage.
2. Site layout plan showing pitch positions, spacing, parking, the reception or amenity building, bin store and any fire separation.
3. Elevations and specifications for the units, including height, materials and colour finish.
4. A planning statement addressing the development plan, rural diversification policy and the countryside location.
5. A design and access statement where one is required by the validation list.
6. A management plan covering occupancy, arrivals, quiet hours, waste and site staffing.
7. A foul drainage and water supply note.
8. A transport and access note with visibility splays shown on a drawing.

The occupancy restriction is the condition that matters commercially. Expect a condition limiting use to holiday purposes, prohibiting permanent residence and often limiting the maximum continuous stay and requiring a register. Negotiate the wording, because a restriction tied to a short maximum stay can rule out the longer bookings the business plan assumes.

Constraint checks that add reports

Run the constraint checks before you spend anything on design. Each of these adds a report.

Mandatory biodiversity net gain applies to development requiring planning permission, subject to the exemptions, including a de minimis exemption for very small habitat losses. A paddock converted to pitches, tracks and parking will usually exceed that threshold. The statutory metric has to be completed by a competent person under the Environment Act 2021 regime, and the biodiversity gain plan is approved by the local planning authority, so an AI-drafted report is a starting point for that person and not a substitute.

Why the flood sequential test applies to camping

Planning Practice Guidance on flood risk and coastal change says the sequential test does not need to be applied to changes of use, with an express exception for changes of use to a caravan, camping or chalet site, or to a mobile home or park home site. Glamping falls inside that exception.

The reason is vulnerability. People sleeping in a tent or a lightweight pod have little protection and no upper floor to retreat to, and they are unfamiliar with the site. Holiday and short-let caravan and camping sites are treated as more vulnerable development in the flood risk vulnerability classification, subject to a flood warning and evacuation plan.

What that means in practice.

In Flood Zone 1, no sequential test and no flood risk assessment unless the site exceeds one hectare.

In Flood Zone 2, a Sequential Test (Flood) demonstrating that there is no reasonably available site at lower risk, plus a Flood Risk Assessment with a flood warning and evacuation plan.

In Flood Zone 3, the position is considerably harder and the exception test may be engaged. A seasonal occupancy restriction outside the flood season, with units removed, is sometimes the only arrangement that works.

The search area for the sequential test is normally the applicant's own land holding plus the wider area the authority specifies. Be straight about what you own, because an alternative paddock in Flood Zone 1 on the same farm is the first thing an officer will look for.

Landscape and visual effects in open countryside

A glamping site is low, scattered and seasonal, which helps, and it introduces vehicles, lighting, hard standing and colour into a field, which does not.

The design decisions that carry weight are muted material and colour finishes, pods set against existing hedge lines and tree groups rather than in the open, native hedge and tree planting with a management commitment, an unlit site with low-level marker lighting only, and parking grouped rather than one bay per pitch.

In a National Landscape or National Park, expect a formal landscape and visual appraisal and a dark skies argument. Outside a designation, a proportionate appraisal with photographs from public viewpoints and a planting plan is usually enough. Where lighting is proposed at all, the obtrusive light guidance applied by councils sets environmental zones, and a rural site generally falls in the darkest category.

Foul drainage and water supply for pitches

This is the practical constraint that decides pitch numbers more often than policy does.

Mains connection is rare on a paddock. The usual solution is a package treatment plant with a discharge to ground via a drainage field, sized on percolation testing, or a sealed cesspool where ground conditions rule infiltration out. Discharges are controlled separately from planning, under the general binding rules or an environmental permit depending on volume and receiving environment, and a Foul Sewage Assessment is where the calculation and the proposed arrangement are set out.

Three things to establish before the layout is fixed. Percolation test results at the proposed drainage field location and depth. The peak population equivalent, which on a glamping site is concentrated at weekends rather than spread evenly. And the water supply, whether a mains connection with sufficient pressure, a borehole with an abstraction position to check, or a tanked supply.

Hot tubs change the arithmetic on both water and drainage, and they bring noise. If they are in the business plan, put them in the application.

Sequencing the commissions

Ecology sets the programme. A Preliminary Ecological Appraisal can be done at any time of year, but the species surveys it recommends have seasons: bat emergence surveys between May and September, great crested newt environmental DNA sampling between mid-April and the end of June, reptiles from April to October, and breeding birds March to August. Miss a window and you wait a year.

So the order is ecology appraisal first, then flood and drainage, then landscape and access, then the design and the statements. Councils expect a suitably qualified author for the ecology work and professional review is strongly advised.

What the council validates against

Read your council's published local validation list before submitting, because rural authorities often add requirements for countryside applications, such as a business case for diversification, a landscape plan or a dark skies statement.

Then check the national list items are present, the red line includes the access and the drainage field, the drawings are to scale with a scale bar, the fee is correct and the ownership certificate matches the title. Browse the 66 PlanScope report types to see which of these can be drafted and where a licensed or competent professional is legally required.

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.