Site huts and compounds under Part 4 Class A

Construction compound permitted development comes from Part 4 Class A of the GPDO 2015, and it is broader than most people assume. It permits buildings, moveable structures, works, plant and machinery required temporarily in connection with and for the duration of operations being carried out on the land or on land adjoining it. Site cabins, a welfare unit, a drying room, a generator, a batching plant, a hoarding, a tower crane base, a temporary haul road: all of it can sit under Class A without a separate application.

The right has two hard edges. It depends entirely on the existence of a permission for the operations, and it ends when the operations end, with a duty to reinstate.

What Part 4 Class A permits

The wording does a lot of work in a short space. "Buildings, moveable structures, works, plant or machinery" covers almost any physical thing you would put on a construction site. "Required temporarily" excludes anything you intend to keep. "In connection with" ties the item to the operations rather than to the site generally.

So a site office serving the works is permitted. A sales suite for marketing the finished flats is not, because it is not required in connection with the building operations, and that distinction catches housebuilders out every year. Marketing suites, show homes in advance of the scheme, and visitor centres normally need their own permission or a condition dealing with them.

There are no height, floorspace or coverage limits in Class A. What controls the compound in practice is the reasonableness of the link to the operations, plus any condition on the main permission that requires a construction management plan to be approved.

The link to a planning permission

Class A does not apply if planning permission is required for the operations and has not been granted or deemed to be granted. That is the restriction that matters.

Three situations follow from it. Where the main scheme has permission, the compound is permitted from the moment the permission is capable of implementation. Where the main scheme is itself permitted development, the Order grants permission for the operations, so Class A follows. And where the operations need permission but none has been granted, the compound is unauthorised and enforceable against, even if the application is about to be approved.

Mining operations are excluded from Class A altogether and have their own regime in Part 17.

Timing is worth thinking about. Enabling works, site clearance and investigation often happen before the main permission is issued, and Class A will not cover a compound set up for those if the operations themselves require permission. Site investigation boreholes and trial pits are a different question, since they may not amount to development at all, but a fenced compound with cabins almost certainly does.

Position, adjoining land and how long the right lasts

The right extends to land adjoining the site, and "adjoining" means sharing a boundary. A field across the lane does not adjoin your site, however convenient it is, and a compound there needs a temporary planning permission of its own. This is the most common Class A error I see on larger schemes, where the obvious flat piece of ground is one parcel removed from the red line.

On duration, there is no fixed period in Class A. The right lasts for the duration of the operations, which sounds generous until a scheme stalls. People often ask about a 24 month limit, and that figure comes from conditions attached to express temporary permissions rather than from the Order. If your site goes quiet for two years with cabins still standing, the honest position is that the operations are not being carried out, and the authority can say the right has lapsed and the structures should have been removed.

The practical answer on a long or phased project is a condition-based approach: apply for the compound as part of the main application, with a phasing plan and an end date tied to completion of the final phase. It costs nothing extra at application stage and removes the argument entirely.

Removal and reinstatement

Two conditions attach to Class A. The development must be removed when the operations have been carried out. And any adjoining land used under Class A must be reinstated, as soon as reasonably practicable, to its condition before the compound went on it.

Reinstatement is the obligation that gets forgotten, and it is enforceable. Before anything arrives on site, record the condition of the land: a photographic survey, a topographical survey where levels matter, a soil description, and a note of hedges, trees and field drains. Compaction under a compound is real damage, and an agricultural landowner whose field has been used for 18 months will want deep ripping and reseeding rather than a rotavator.

Where the compound sits on land you do not own, the reinstatement standard should be written into the licence or lease rather than left to the Order, because the landowner's remedy in contract will be more useful to them than a planning enforcement notice.

Hoardings, scaffolding and advertisement consent

A site hoarding required temporarily in connection with the works falls within Class A, which is why you do not need permission for a 2.4 m plywood hoarding that would otherwise breach the height limits for fences in Part 2.

Three other consents sit alongside it:

1. A licence under section 172 of the Highways Act 1980 where a hoarding adjoins a street, with associated licences under sections 169 and 171 for scaffolding and for depositing materials or excavating in the highway.
2. Advertisement consent. The 2007 Advertisement Regulations give deemed consent for certain advertisements on hoardings enclosing a site where building works are taking place, subject to size and position limits. Large illuminated graphics, banners on scaffold wrap and anything advertising a business other than those involved in the works usually need express consent.
3. A street works permit or temporary traffic regulation order where the footway is closed or the carriageway narrowed.

Lighting of the compound is development within Class A, but it still has to avoid being a statutory nuisance. On a site next to houses, agree the lighting layout, column heights and curfew in the construction management plan rather than discovering the problem through complaints.

Welfare, parking and deliveries on a tight site

Class A removes the planning question. It does not remove the practical one, and on a constrained urban site the compound layout is the hardest drawing in the pack.

Welfare provision is a legal duty under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, which require suitable sanitary and washing facilities, drinking water, changing and rest facilities. Those take up space, and so does the statutory requirement for safe segregated pedestrian routes.

What usually has to be solved together: a loading and unloading area off the highway, a wheel wash where the site is on soil, skip and waste storage, a tower crane or hoist position with an oversail envelope, operative parking or a credible statement that there will be none, and a delivery booking system where the street cannot hold a waiting lorry.

A construction management plan should carry the compound layout, hours, noise and dust controls, lighting and the complaints procedure. A separate construction traffic management plan deals with routeing, vehicle numbers, swept paths and the booking system. Many authorities condition both on anything larger than a householder scheme, and a site waste management plan is often asked for too even though the 2008 Regulations requiring them were revoked.

When you need a separate application

Five situations where Class A will not help and you should apply:

• The compound is on land that does not share a boundary with the development site.
• The compound will serve more than one development, or will stay in use between phases with no operations running.
• You want to keep any part of it after completion, including the access track or the hardstanding.
• The compound includes something that is not required in connection with the operations, such as a marketing suite or a materials depot serving the wider business.
• The operations themselves have no permission yet.

Green Belt deserves a note. Class A applies in the Green Belt, and a compound under it is permitted development rather than inappropriate development. But a compound on non-adjoining Green Belt land needs a temporary permission, and that application has to deal with openness and very special circumstances, which is a much harder case.

Documenting the compound

Even where Class A clearly applies, write it down. A short note in the planning statement or in the construction management plan, identifying the compound area on a plan, stating which land is site and which is adjoining, confirming the operations it relates to, and committing to the removal and reinstatement obligations.

That note does two things. It stops a case officer raising the compound as an unauthorised development six months in, and it gives the landowner and the contractor a shared record of the pre-works condition.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; the Order has been amended many times, and a lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful, so check the current text with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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