Agricultural to grazing land......

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canteron

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Has anyone ever seriously been prosecuted? Just about to do this - but it will have sheep on it for most of the year with the odd horse - but I can’t really thing anyone will care?
 
I didn't think grazing horses was illegal on agricultural land... As long as they're not fed in the field.
 
Sheep are agricultural so I can't see anyone would care? If the appearance of the land changed significantly they might but I really can't see they would otherwise. In any event I'm not sure you would be prosecuted for a transgression of this nature as the first step either. I would think that at worst you might get a warning of some sort to remove the offending object ie horse but that isn't like being made to pull a house down so I wouldn't be particularly concerned. I'm no expert but I think you would only be in danger of being prosecuted if you ignored some sort of enforcement notice of that nature? Presume that even if someone did take the point, you would have the opportunity to apply for retrospective change of use planning permission? I don't understand the no feeding horses points mentioned above, could someone explain? Farm animals get fed in the field?
 
They wont prosecute - expensive, time consuming, troublesome, bad press. Prosecution is a last resort. I really cant see them being bothered unless this is for a business. If they were bothered, they would start informally as it is quick, cheap and easy for them and avoids being heavy handed.
 
Horses living from the grass in the field is grazing, and falls within permitted agricultural use. Only a problem if you start setting up showjumps, feeding 3 buckets per day and/or keeping far more equines than the land will support.
 
Our planning man told us you can graze horses on argri land but you can't keep horses on agri land. The difference is the rug. If you rug you are 'keeping' a horse if not you are grazing.
 
They way we explain it is that we keep the horses in the stables and graze them on our fields, the stables are within the curtilage of our house, the fields are agricultural.
 
A local stud up here have had terrible trouble with the council over having horses on agricultural land despite buying the land from someone who had had horses on there for 14yrs themselves. They're the only people I know that have had issues, however they have had several years of being dragged through the courts since. it was started by a neighbour complaining they were riding there I was told
 
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