The 28 day rule: temporary use of land under Part 4

Class B of Schedule 2 Part 4 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 permits the use of any land for any purpose for not more than 28 days in total in any calendar year, together with the provision on the land of any moveable structure for the purposes of that use. Of those 28 days, no more than 14 may be used for holding a market or for motor car and motorcycle racing.

The right is narrower than its reputation, and the restriction that catches most people is that it applies to land rather than to buildings or their curtilage.

What Class B permits and for how long

Three elements make up the right.

The use of land, for any purpose, subject to the exclusions below. The provision of moveable structures on that land, for the purposes of the permitted use. And a limit expressed in days per calendar year rather than in consecutive periods.

Because the purpose is unrestricted, the class covers an unusually wide range: a car boot sale, a farm shop pop-up, a festival, a clay pigeon shoot, a paintball day, an outdoor cinema, a training area, a seasonal parking overflow, a temporary display area.

What it does not cover is anything that leaves something behind. Levelling the ground, laying a hardstanding, putting in services, erecting a permanent building: each of those is operational development in its own right, and the temporary use right says nothing about it.

Uses limited to 14 days rather than 28

The Order sets a lower cap for two categories: the holding of a market, and motor car and motorcycle racing including trials of speed and practising for those activities.

Those days are not additional. They come out of the same 28. So a site holding a market on 14 days has 14 days left for anything else, and a site holding motor sport on 14 days is in the same position.

The market limit catches farm and estate owners who run a regular monthly event. Twelve monthly markets sit inside the 14 day allowance. Fortnightly markets do not.

How the days are counted across a calendar year

Four counting rules do most of the work in practice.

1. The year is the calendar year, so the allowance resets on 1 January and does not roll over.
2. A day of use is a day, whatever its duration. Half a day is not half a day for these purposes.
3. Setting up and clearing away can count where the land is being used for the purpose of the temporary use during that time.
4. The allowance attaches to the land as a planning unit, so separate events run by different organisers on the same land all draw on the same 28 days.

That last rule surprises landowners who let their fields to several different operators. The council counts days of use, not days per hirer.

Keep a log. A simple record of each date, the use, the organiser and the hours is the evidence that answers a planning contravention notice, and reconstructing it two years later from diaries and invoices is a great deal harder than writing it down at the time.

Moveable structures and what may be erected

The class permits any moveable structure provided for the purposes of the permitted use. Marquees, stalls, portable toilets, temporary fencing, a mobile catering unit, staging and lighting rigs all sit comfortably within that.

The test is whether the structure is really moveable and whether it is there for the permitted use. Two things push a structure outside the right: fixing it to the ground in a way that makes removal impractical, and leaving it in place outside the days of temporary use.

A marquee erected in April and taken down in October is not a moveable structure provided for a temporary use. It is a building, and it needs planning permission.

Article 2(3) land and other exclusions

Class B is not available in several situations, and the exclusions in paragraph B.1 of the Order are the first thing to check.

The right does not apply where the land is a building, or is within the curtilage of a building. It does not apply to use as a caravan site, which is dealt with separately in Part 5. Within a site of special scientific interest, the Order excludes certain uses including motor sport, clay pigeon shooting and war games. And the display of an advertisement is outside the class altogether, being governed by the advertisement control regime.

Permitted development rights can also be withdrawn by an Article 4 direction or by a condition on an earlier permission, so check the site's planning history as well as the designations.

Where a licence is needed as well

Planning permission is only one of the consents, and a temporary use that is permitted development can still be unlawful for other reasons. The parallel regimes to check are:

• Licensing Act 2003 permissions for alcohol, regulated entertainment and late night refreshment, either through a temporary event notice or a premises licence.
• Food business registration and food hygiene requirements for catering.
• Highway authority consent for any temporary road closure, signage or traffic management.
• Environmental health requirements on noise, and on waste collection for larger events.
• Landowner and insurance requirements, and event safety planning under health and safety law.

Where an event is large enough to draw complaints, deal with the impacts in advance. A Noise Impact Assessment setting limits at nearby dwellings, and a short Transport Statement covering arrival routes and parking, are proportionate for a site holding several events a year, and they are useful when a permanent permission is later sought.

Recording use to defend an enforcement query

Councils investigate temporary use cases from complaints, and the investigation almost always turns on how many days the land has been used.

Build the record as you go. Date, use, organiser, approximate attendance, hours of activity, and a note of any set up or clearance days. Keep the bookings, the invoices and any licence applications with it. Photographs are useful for showing that nothing permanent was left behind.

An illustrative example: a 3 hectare field used for a monthly car boot sale from March to October, plus a two-day charity event in June, plus a one-day school fete in July, would use 8 days for the car boot sales, 2 for the charity event and 1 for the fete. That is 11 days of the annual 28, and none of the market cap is engaged if the car boot is not a market in the relevant sense, which is a question worth taking advice on.

Where an operation is outgrowing the allowance, apply for permission rather than testing the boundary. A temporary or seasonal permission with conditions on days, hours and noise is far easier to live with than an enforcement notice, and a Planning Statement explaining the established pattern of use gives the council a starting point it recognises. For sites where set up traffic is heavy, a traffic management plan covering the arrival and departure of contractors and equipment also helps.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it, and remember that a lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that a use is lawful. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.