Anyone managed to get permission for indoorschool on green belt?

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vanrim

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Just wondering if anyone has managed to get permission for an indoor school for private use on green belt land. We are in Cheshire and have about 15 acres. It is my home so there is a house and stables and manege already but Council have said it would need exceptional circumstances to justify an indoor school. Any advice please.
 
I knew someone who did, but she had sheep for years already, and had a big specialist (expensive) agricultural planning firm in to get it. They went down the route of a sheep barn measuring 18mx37m.
 
My council (dont know if it applies to all councils) have a duty to promote sport which includes horse riding. That is often what i have read when i read peoples planning applications for stables etc online.
 
Can only say some people seem to manage to get new facilities when you think they will not. The ones I know about were in East.

I think people use specialist planning advisors to help, and keep submitting. Dual Agricultural use does seem to help as others suggest.
 
The sheep barn route is interesting as we have had sheep on the land in the past. I have also thought of contacting one of the specialists too but suspect that will be expensive. I know a farm down the road got a building just under 20 x 40m some years ago but the planners insisted that if it ceased to be used for agriculture within the first 10 years it would have to be taken down.
 
Don't know what your budget is, but you could try Charles Britton (based in Cheshire). We got a quote from them, amongst several other companies, for our 40m x 20m outdoor arena. Tbh we only asked for a quote from them to see what the 'big boys' would charge and thought it would be way out of our league.

Surprisingly it was only a very little more than from other much less experienced contractors, and a big bonus was that they did all the planning for us as part of the quote. We had previously contacted another planning specialist who didn't think we would get the arena on the site we had chosen. The application sailed through and the Charles Britton team dealt with it from beginning to end.

I know they do some pretty major projects, I don't know personally whether they've constructed an indoor school but I should think they have. They are dealing with equestrian planning applications all the time so they know what buttons to press. Another plus was that with the original quote, I was given lists of scores of existing CB arenas I could go and view, from new builds to 20 year old arenas, which was very reassuring.

They will refund your deposit, less standard admin costs, if the application is refused.

Disclaimer, I have no connection with CB except as a previous satisfied customer!
 
If you go for quotes go for Agricultural sheds as opposed to Industrial as they are a much higher spec. You may also have to pay rates on the square footage which will also make it expensive. The price of the shed is the cheap bit, its the erection, cladding and flooring which will really bump the price up. We put up a 140 x 100' shed 12 yrs ago and it cost 100k without any floor.
 
vanrim said:
The sheep barn route is interesting as we have had sheep on the land in the past. I have also thought of contacting one of the specialists too but suspect that will be expensive. I know a farm down the road got a building just under 20 x 40m some years ago but the planners insisted that if it ceased to be used for agriculture within the first 10 years it would have to be taken down.
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TBH, we are just lucky around here that, despite being very negative when it comes to giving planning permission, our local authority, once they have granted permission, hardly ever do follow up visits. She has been very lucky really.
 
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