Siting a grain store on an exposed ridge
On a ridge, the prior approval question stops being a formality. Siting, cladding colour and cut levels decide whether a grain store reads as a farm building or as an object on the skyline.
On a ridge, siting is the argument. Part 6 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 allows agricultural buildings on units of five hectares or more within stated limits, but it reserves siting, design and external appearance to the local planning authority through a prior approval application. For a grain store on a skyline that is not a formality, and a grain store planning permission question that would be straightforward in a valley becomes a landscape case on a ridge.
The building itself is rarely controversial. Farms need grain stores, and the agricultural justification is usually the easy part. What is contested is where it sits and what it looks like from three miles away.
Why siting is the matter reserved for prior approval
The right in Part 6 Class A exists because agriculture needs buildings and the planning system does not want to assess every one of them from first principles. What it does want is control over the things that cause harm: position in the landscape, the form of the building and its finish.
So the notification is not asking whether you may build. It is asking the authority to determine whether its approval is required for siting, design and external appearance, and if so, to approve those details. The agricultural need is a precondition, not the subject of the assessment.
That reframing helps. Arguments about how much grain the holding produces are relevant to whether the building is reasonably necessary. They do nothing at all to answer an officer looking at a wireline from a ridge-top footpath.
Landscape and visual effects from public vantage points
Work out who can see the site before you fix the position. Walk the public rights of way, drive the lanes in both directions, and photograph from the points where the building would break the skyline rather than from the points where it would not.
Skyline interruption is the issue that decides these cases. A building set 40 metres below a ridge crest, backed by rising ground, reads as part of the farmed landscape. The same building on the crest reads as a structure against sky, and no amount of colour treatment fixes that.
Where the ridge is within or visible from a National Landscape, the policy weight rises and the permitted development position may change entirely. Check the Order's treatment of designated land before assuming the right applies, and be ready to make the case in full through a Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment prepared to the recognised methodology.
Cut and fill to reduce apparent height
The least costly visual mitigation on a sloping site is excavation.
Dropping the floor slab by a metre takes a metre off the apparent height from every direction, and on a grain store with a 10 metre eaves that is a real reduction. The trade-offs are drainage, the cost of moving material, the need for retaining structures and the practicality of lorry access to the intake pit.
Show the cut on a section through the building with existing and proposed ground levels, and show the same section on the longest view. Officers respond to sections. They rarely respond to a written assurance that the building will be set into the slope.
Where excavated material stays on site, say where it goes. A spoil mound beside a ridge-top building can be more visible than the building.
Cladding colour, finish and reflectivity
Specify the colour, do not describe it. A note saying dark green cladding invites a substitution on site; a note giving a reference from a recognised colour standard does not.
Three things matter on an exposed site. Tone, because dark recessive colours read as shadow at distance while light ones read as highlights. Finish, because a matt surface stays quiet while a gloss one flares in low sun and can be visible many miles away. And consistency, because a building with one colour of sheeting and another colour of roller shutter draws the eye to the difference.
Roof colour usually matters more than walls on a ridge, since the roof is what a viewer from below sees against the sky. Dark grey and dark olive tones are the conventional choice for good reason.
Rooflights and translucent sheeting deserve a thought as well. They are useful inside and they light up at dusk when the store is being worked, which turns a quiet dark form into a lantern on the skyline. If night working is likely, say so and deal with it, because a complaint after the event is much harder to answer.
Access tracks and the movements they generate
A new building on a ridge normally needs a track to it, and the track is often more visible than the building because it cuts across contours in a straight line.
Follow field boundaries where you can. Use a surface that weathers to something close to the local stone rather than a bright imported aggregate. Keep the width to what an articulated lorry actually needs, and show the turning geometry rather than guessing at it.
Where the track crosses a hedge, the removal may be caught by the hedgerow regulations and needs its own notice. See hedgerow removal notices.
Traffic generation is usually seasonal and intense rather than constant, and saying so plainly helps. Harvest movements over three weeks read differently from year-round haulage, which is the distinction that matters in poultry units, scale and EIA screening as well.
Planting that works in an exposed position
Ridge-top planting fails more often than it succeeds, and a landscape scheme that assumes otherwise will be tested.
Use species that tolerate wind and thin soils, plant at small sizes because whips establish where standards fail, provide shelter for the first seasons, and fence against stock and rabbits. Then be honest about timescale. A shelterbelt does not screen a 10 metre building in five years, and claiming it will invites the officer to discount the whole scheme.
Planting works best when it breaks the outline rather than hiding the building. A group of trees at the gable, set forward of the elevation, does more visually than a thin line along the boundary.
One further point on maintenance. Whatever is planted has to be looked after through dry summers and replaced where it fails, and the authority will want a commitment to that. On a prior approval there is no obvious mechanism to secure it, which is an argument for proposing something modest you will actually do rather than something ambitious you will not.
What to submit with a prior approval notification
Send more than the minimum. The determination period is short and an officer with questions and no answers will refuse.
- Location and block plans showing the holding, the chosen position and at least one alternative you considered.
- Existing and proposed sections through the site, with levels, showing the cut.
- Elevations with the colour references and finishes stated.
- Photographs from named public vantage points, with the viewpoint positions mapped.
- A short agricultural justification covering the holding area, the crop and why the building is needed there.
- The access arrangement, including any hedge or tree loss.
PlanScope can produce an AI-assisted draft Planning Statement that pulls the policy framework together and marks the site-specific facts as to be confirmed. The landscape judgment belongs to a landscape professional, and councils normally expect one for a visual assessment on a site like this.
This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports the site needs.
PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Frequently asked questions
What are the limits on a Part 6 agricultural building?
The right applies to agricultural units of five hectares or more, and the building has to be reasonably necessary for the purposes of agriculture on that unit. There are limits on ground area, on height, on proximity to a metalled classified road, and on use as a dwelling. The limits are set out in Schedule 2 Part 6 of the Order and should be read there rather than summarised.
How long does prior approval take?
The authority has a set period from receipt of a valid notification to tell you whether its prior approval is required, and if it does not respond within that period the development may proceed in accordance with the details submitted. Because the period is short, the quality of what you send with the notification matters more than on an ordinary application.
Can the council refuse a prior approval on landscape grounds?
It can refuse approval of the siting, design or external appearance, which in practice means refusing the building as proposed rather than the principle of a building. That is why alternative sitings are worth showing. A notification offering one position on the ridge and nothing else gives the authority no way to approve anything.
Does a National Landscape change the position?
Yes. Permitted development rights in National Landscapes, National Parks and the Broads are more restricted, and some classes do not apply at all. Check the article 2(3) land definitions in the Order and the relevant part of Schedule 2 before assuming the right exists. Where the right is unavailable, a full planning application is needed and the landscape case has to be made in full.
Do I need a landscape and visual assessment for a farm building?
Not always, and not always a full one. On a flat site behind an existing farmstead, a set of photographs from public vantage points and a short appraisal is usually proportionate. On an exposed ridge visible from a long stretch of public road or footpath, a structured assessment with wirelines from agreed viewpoints earns its cost quickly.
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.