Advice please - re mobile shelters and agricultural land

[Perissa]

My landlord is having no end of trouble with the council planning people.

He bought a strip of land of just under 3 acres next to the land that I rent from him. There is no issue with the land and yard I rent.

2 blocks of 2 mobile field shelters have been erected on the land next door. They are the type on a sledge. They are on ex council paving slabs for a base so are also temporary and movable.

The land is ex land fill and can never be built on.

The council man is INSISTING that because the land is classed as Agricultural and not equestrian use that my land lord MUST move the stables AND SLABS EVERY TWO WEEKS AT LEAST 20 METERS from their previous site.

He is INSISTING that there isn't enough land to sustain 3 horses (one of the stable's is the feed/hay/store). The horses on this three acres are 1 Section D gelding and two elderly shetland ponies. He is INSISTING that regardless of size each equine must have at least an acre. He is very unhappy that the shetland ponies were in such a small paddock - strip grazed electric fence paddock and said that they must be in at least an acre field!!! (He doesn't know what laminitits is).

He said that there must be enough land to sustain each horse with no supplementary feeding. Actually in reality there is but naturally they have a small feed each for correct nutrition purposes. The Section D competes a lot and the shetlands are both OAP's.
By the way one of the shetland's recently had 4 teeth out and can't eat hay or grass terrible well anyway but manages very well on what we call her slop.

Any advice I can pass on to my landlord?

How hard is it to change land from Agricultural to Equestrian.

What are the rules regarding horses on Agricultural land?

How can he find out if the land is classed as Agricultural when it is ex land fill?

Links to official documents would be good so I can pass them on to him.

Thanks for any help

 

[martlin]

I can give info on some of the issues...

It isn't any of the planning officers business if the horses have enough grazing or not, if he feels they are neglected he should report it to adequate authorities.
But, just for your knowledge, grazing 'units' are as follows

a horse/a cow(with calf) 1 unit
a sheep 1/6 unit
a pony 0.6 unit

you should have 1 grazing unit per acre.

It is quite tricky with change of use to equestrian, a bit easier though to go for either 'mixed' or 'grazing and keeping of horses'.

The best course of action is to take advice from an independent planning advisor.

And the bit about moving them every 2 weeks by 20 metres is rubbish, he just made it up.

 

[BBH]

I can only comment on Winchester District Council as they are the council I dealt with when I bought my land. I have to say I had no problems at all but I know that they took their guidance from the BHS website in regards to how many horses per acre. I think other problems are that your landlords land is agricultural and secondly there isn't much of it ie under 3 acres. The Council look at so much more than just how many horse there are. They consider things like manure disposal, proximity to footpaths, is the land near flood planes, environmental factors, vehicle access, increase in foot / car flow. The neighbour at the back of me bought under 3 acres and he is having problems getting what he wants. He has just had his application approved but it was totally changed to what he originally wanted.

My advice for your landlord is to work with the council and say this is what I would like to do now what can I have. Do not do anything to antagonise them. It may take longer but should prove more fruitful in the end. Also employ good planning consultants as a professionally put together package answering all the questions is much better received than one where the council have insufficient detail and then have to keep coming back asking questions. If they can't be bothered it may just gfet chucked out saying their is insufficient detail to base a decision on.

 

[scally]

I have had this problem with mobile field shelters, Babergh Council (Suffolk) insist the same the shelter must be moved every two weeks, if not it becomes a permanent structure and therefore planning is required. The same I suppose for a mobile home, just because it is mobile you cannot stick it on your land and use it, you require planning.

Apparently more and more councils are going to take this line of action, as so many are abusing (their words) putting down a base with the shelters, turning them to stables, not moving them for months on end, that they lose there claim to be be "mobile". Any type of base under the shelter whether rubber matting, chippings, patio slabs etc etc, change the use of the land from grazing land.

 

[PeterNatt]

In planning law only horses that are used on a farm, breed for meat or grazed without any additional feed are deemed to be 'agricultural animals'.

Therefore planning permission for 'Equestrian Use' is required for any other horses.

Some local authorities do not require planning permission for mobile field shelters and some do.

However they will require 'Planning Permision for Equestrian Use' as regards the field with or without field shelters etc.

Anyone buying an equestrian property should always ensure that Planning Permission' has been granted for equestrian use.

 

[Perissa]

[ QUOTE ]
I can only comment on Winchester District Council as they are the council I dealt with when I bought my land.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is also Winchester District Council.

I will print this all this info off and pass to to him.

Thanks everyone.