Temporary uses of land and the 28 day rule

The 28 day temporary use rule sits in Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015, and it does one thing: it lets land be used for a purpose other than its normal one, for a limited number of days in each calendar year, without an application. A lower limit applies to markets and to motor car and motorcycle racing. The limits have been amended more than once, so read the current text of Part 4 on legislation.gov.uk before relying on a figure you remember.

What the right does not do is create a general freedom to hold events. It is narrow, it is conditional, and the burden of showing that a use falls inside it rests on the landowner.

What Part 4 permits

The right covers the use of land for any purpose for not more than the permitted number of days in total in any calendar year, together with the provision on the land of any moveable structure needed for the purposes of that use. Two elements, and the second is easy to overlook.

So a field can host a wedding marquee, a classic car show, a Christmas tree sale or a pop-up campsite, provided the total days across everything stay within the allowance and the structures involved really are moveable. Trackway, portable toilets, a temporary stage and demountable fencing are the kind of thing contemplated. Hardstanding, a founded building or a permanent access is not.

The use has to stop at the end of the period and the land has to revert to its previous use. That is the whole architecture of the right, and it is why a use that quietly continues beyond the allowance becomes a breach of planning control from the day the allowance is exhausted rather than from the day someone complains.

Uses excluded from the right

Part 4 carries exclusions. The right does not apply where the land is a building or is within the curtilage of a building, which removes gardens, yards and forecourts from the picture. It does not apply to use as a caravan site, which has its own regime. It does not apply to the display of an advertisement. And on a site of special scientific interest, uses such as motor sport, clay pigeon shooting and markets are excluded.

Check the current wording rather than the summary, because the list has been adjusted over the years and the exclusions are where enforcement cases are won and lost. Where a site sits in a conservation area, a National Landscape or a National Park, the right itself may be unaffected but the practical consequences of noise, traffic and appearance attract more attention, and an Article 4 direction can remove the right entirely.

Counting days across a calendar year

The count runs on the calendar year, not a rolling twelve months, and it aggregates every temporary use on that land. One field hosting five weekend events and a two-week seasonal use has spent most of its allowance.

How to keep a count that will survive scrutiny:

1. Log every date the land is used for a temporary purpose, including the activity and the responsible person.
2. Photograph the site on the first and last day of each occupation, with metadata intact.
3. Keep bookings, invoices and licences as corroboration, since a hire agreement is dated evidence.
4. Record set-up and clearance separately, so you can show what happened on each day.
5. Review the running total before agreeing the next booking rather than after.

Partial days count as days. And where the land is held by one owner but used by several operators, the count belongs to the land, so a landowner who takes bookings from three different event companies is the only person who can keep it accurately.

Structures erected for the temporary use

The question officers ask is whether the structure is moveable and whether it is required for the permitted use. A marquee on ballast, erected for a fortnight and taken down, is comfortably inside. A timber-framed bar with a poured slab is a building operation, and no amount of describing it as temporary changes that.

The practical test to apply on site: could this be removed without leaving physical works behind, and is it going to be. Where the answer to either half is no, the structure needs planning permission separately from the use, and a Planning Statement explaining the temporary nature of the activity is a better route than hoping nobody looks at the base.

Where a separate licence is still needed

Planning is one regime among several, and Part 4 says nothing about the others. Depending on the activity you may also need a premises licence or a temporary event notice under the Licensing Act 2003, a street trading consent from the district council, a highway licence or traffic management order for access and parking, a food business registration, and a safety certificate for structures such as stages and stands.

Where access arrangements are the sensitive point, the highway authority will want to see how visitors arrive, park and leave, and a short Transport Statement is sometimes the fastest way to head off an objection even where no planning application is needed for the use itself.

Illustrative example: a farm on a B road wants to run a seasonal pumpkin event over three weekends in October, plus a summer camping weekend and a spring market. That is nine days of event use, two days of camping and one market day, with set-up and clearance adding perhaps eight more. Within the annual allowance on those figures, but the market day draws on the lower sub-limit, and the parking field is within the curtilage of the farmyard buildings, which would take it outside the right. The workable answer is to move parking to open land clear of the curtilage and to keep a dated log. Illustrative only, and the day limits should be checked against the current Order.

Evidence of day counts

If the council investigates, it will ask for the log. It may also have its own evidence: complaint records, dated photographs from neighbours, social media advertising the event, and aerial imagery. Advertising is the most common source, because an event promoted for four days is hard to describe afterwards as having lasted two.

An owner with a clean log, dated photographs and booking records is in a strong position. An owner reconstructing the year from memory is not. Where the position is unclear, a lawful development certificate is the formal route to confirm that a use is lawful, and it is the only way to obtain certainty rather than comfort.

When to apply for temporary permission instead

Once an activity becomes annual, commercially material or larger than the allowance, apply. A temporary planning permission with a condition limiting the number of days or the period gives you certainty, lets you resolve parking and noise once, and removes the risk that a good year triggers enforcement.

The application is an ordinary full application. The statement needs to explain the use, its frequency, the access and parking arrangements, noise management and how the land reverts afterwards. Where the activity does not sit neatly in a use class, uses that belong to no class at all explains why the description of development matters more than the label. The wider evidence base for a rural application is set out across all 66 report types.

This is general guidance, not legal advice, and a lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works or a use are lawful. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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