Mobile Field Shelters – Why they do not need organizing permission…Or do they?

This is an age old question, with quite a few differing opinions. Numerous council preparing departments will insist that you do need preparing permission and other people will say you do not.My aim these days is to bring some clarity to this, so that you may well confidently set up a mobile field shelter in the full knowledge that you are not in breach of uk planning Laws.Should really you be reading this as a arranging officer, I trust that you will come across my research beneficial, and it will save you a lot of time and valuable council sources coming to your final conclusions on this matter.So, why is it that there is this conflict of opinion?


Let’s appear at this from a organizing officer’s perspective. They have a report come in to them to say a significant timber building has arrived in a field.”A creating put in a field? That have to need planning approval” they assume.On the face of it they are correct. Buildings will need preparing approval, so they challenge a note to the land owner stating that a breach of preparing manage has taken place and the field owner need to either eliminate the creating or apply retrospectively for planning permission. Fairly straight forward one may well assume.Now to be fair to our planning officers, who, let’s face it, do a terrific and often tricky, demanding job making certain our countryside does not get over created. There is a myriad of new legislation on improvement to discover on an just about daily basis and I personally really feel it is impossible to totally be aware of all of the legislation all of the time.

Therefore, those who are aware of a unique historical arranging case in regard to mobile field shelters will tell you that you do not will need permission, whereas these who are not conscious of it, will inform you the opposite.I am going to go over and quote from an appeal decision relating to a case involving, a Mr Bennet, following his decision to obtain and install a Mobile Field Shelter in Dorset, Wiltshire in 2001. He was asked to eliminate it by his council.Way back in 2001, Purbeck District Council issued an enforcement notice to Mr Bennet immediately after he had just taken possession of his mobile field shelter, stating that, and I quote straight from the appeal selection

“Without having arranging permission, he had committed a “change of use of the land from grazing to a mixed use comprising the maintaining of horses and the sitting of a horse shelter.” mobile field shelters for sale demanded that he “cease using the land for storing a horse shelter and absolutely take away the shelter from the land.”Mr Bennet appealed this enforcement notice as he firmly thought of that his shelter did not fall beneath any planning requirements, as his structure was a piece of equipment that was mobile and could be moved at will from place to location and it did not have any ground-functions associated with it.

The appeal was decided by an independent inspector appointed by The Secretary of State for Local Government, amongst other titles.Stick with me, I know this is just getting a bit heavy and your eyes are beginning to glaze over, for the reason that it will be worth it in the end.The inspector visited the web page, took on board all the arguments on both sides. He acknowledged that:

“No preparation of the ground was required prior to the erection of the mobile field shelter.”

“There is no physical attachment to the ground”

“There are no solutions connected.”

“It is not permanently sited”

“It is made to be moved”

The inspector then concluded:

“Obtaining regard to the foregoing, it is my conclusion as a matter of fact and degree that, on the balance of probability, the stationing of the field shelter on the land did not amount to operational improvement as defined in section 55(1) of the 1990 Town & Nation Arranging Act. The enforcement notice which alleges the erection of a horse shelter is for that reason not applicable and will be quashed.”

Now there was a second element to this enforcement notice, namely Purbeck Council believed that there was a adjust of use on the land to a mixed use, and I quote once again straight from the appeal selection.

“The argument for the appellant is that notice land is made use of by horses for grazing that the judgement in the case of Sykes v SSe and South Oxford DC South Oxfordshire DC v SSe and Underwood and other people [1981] JPL 285 confirmed that such a use falls inside the definition of agriculture in section 336(1) of the 1990, and that, by virtue of Section 22(2)(e) of the Act, arranging permission was not required.

In the inspectors final conclusion he statesConsequently, the siting of the mobile field shelter in connection with this use would similarly avoid the want for planning permission.If you are nonetheless reading, nicely done. The appeal selection goes in to fantastic detail with regard to Mr Bennet’s horses have to have to consume grass, his riding and feasible leisure usage being undertaken.Here are further direct quotes from the Inspector”What the council are saying is that there has been a transform from use from grazing to a mixed use compromising the keeping of horses and the siting of a horse shelter.”

“There are two horses on the holding which the Appellant explained supplies their whole feeding requirement. They graze the grass and a hay crop taken from the land is stored elsewhere and brought back as needed in the winter months.”

“The council submit that the land is being used for a hobby goal. Mainly because horses will consume grass when put into a field, it does not stick to that grazing is the principal use.””Mainly because there is no explanation to assume that any of the leisure riding or related activity takes spot on the land I uncover, on the balance of probability, that there is no direct leisure use of the appeal site itself.”

“Consequently, I do not accept the Councils contention that there is no agricultural element in the use at the moment getting undertaken.”And the inspectors final conclusion”Consequently, no organizing permission was essential and the notice will be quashed. In the situations, the deemed application for organizing permission does not fail to be regarded.””I conclude that in the certain circumstances of this case neither the mobile field shelter nor the use of the appeal website fall within the scope of organizing handle.”

So there it is, from that day back in August 2001, planning law was set on the subject of Mobile Field Shelters. They do not need preparing permission and you not have to have to apply for a adjust of use for your horses to graze the land on fields with mobile field shelters in.Councils all over the country now have to adhere to what the inspector concluded when assessing the siting of Mobile Field Shelters.As a final piece of critical info on this topic, the web page in query we are referring to here, sits in

“An Location of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”

As a result we can conclude that even if you want to internet site a mobile field shelter in an A0NB. You do not require preparing permission.Should really your nearby arranging officer insist that you do need arranging approval, quote to them the Appeal selection reference number.