Have you been made to move a mobile shelter?

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Patchworkpony

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Has anyone been made to move their mobile field shelter by the council? I want to put a mobile field shelter up outside the garden into a field near my neighbour's boundary. It is one of the only flat areas so would suit me to leave it there all the time to store hay. To move it would defeat the object of buying it. I just wondered how many people have been forced to move their mobile shelter by the council - or do they leave you alone?
 
Gosh rema thanks for that. The trouble is we have a pleasant but VERY nosy neighbour who I think would mention it to someone sooner or later. I wish I could think of how to store hay in a wheeled vehicle as that would be legal to park. Perhaps I should buy a flat trailer and put a top on it!
 
We have two mobile shelters one has been on the same spot for 6 years and the other for 2 years. We would h\ve to take down fences etc to move them. Never been reported and not had any trouble so far(fingers crossed )
 
We are on very hilly, ridged and furrowed land on the side of a valley. Our mobile field shelters sit on the only flat areas of our fields, 4 of our 6 up against the fence line, under trees, out of view, with the intention of keeping the vista unspoiled. We haven't made any changes to the ground on which they sit, except to shift a bit of soil (by hand) to make sure the skids are as level as possible. I've always worried that the council will suddenly change their policies and make us move the shelters. The fact that they ARE moveable should be enough to prove to the authorities that they are not permanent structures. We have switched the positions of two of the shelters (moving a smaller one to a field with fewer horses, and putting the larger one in its place for more animals). If we had to move our shelters several times a year, it would mean disturbing the ground with heavy equipment in order for the structures to be level, which could be considered counter to council policies, and could be dangerous for the horses in light of recent research into grass sickness.
 
Patchworkpony said:
To move it would defeat the object of buying it.
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??? I don't really understand. A mobile field shelter must be mobile, if it's not then it's a stable or a shed & would definately need planning permission. Having the ability to move them is a must because you'll have some major problems if the council hear about it & decide to take enforcement action. Telling them it's been there for years & no one has complained until now is not a reason not to move it. This stops indescriminate building on green belt & other land.

The thought that having skids under them should prove they are moveable & therefore are not permanent structures is not really very valid. I would like to buy a nice piece of green belt land. If I build a house on it, but I put a couple of skids under it, could I say it wasn't permanent so I won't need planning permission & so I could live in it & possibly move it a couple of feet every so often? I don't think so....

I'm not saying move the shelter every 6 months or so, which is what you really should do, I'm saying have the ability to move it if the council demand you do. Don't waste your time, effort & money trying to fight the council on this issue because you will lose.
 
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Patchworkpony said:
I wish I could think of how to store hay in a wheeled vehicle as that would be legal to park. Perhaps I should buy a flat trailer and put a top on it!
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I bought two livestock trailers more cheaply than putting up a shelter. I keep them road legal and I go and get them filled up with hay and straw. Then I take them home and park them where they are most convenient:D

At least that's what I used to do = now i have moved and we have a large and planning approved hay barn.
 
Honestly don't know the answer but do you need planning for those metal storage shipping containers, I always thought they would be ideal for hay? Or certainly you see many very elderly rotting horse boxes in fields that must be Ok to park a box but certainly they don't move very often.
Or try the pallet and tarp approach - with a layer of straw bales around the outside it works pretty well
 
Polos Mum - you say try the pallet and tarp approach - with a layer of straw bales around the outside. I'm not quite sure what you mean could you explain how this works please?
 
Sure, just on the ground a layer of pallets, then a layer of straw bales then hay stacked with straw bales on the outside layer (think of a baked alaska with hay being the ice cream!) then layer of straw bales on the top then cover the whole thing in tarpaulin - the straw lets the hay breath and copes with any minor sheet leakages. We've stored hay outside sucessfully like this.
 
It might be worth getting the planners out for a chat, here they will informally tell you what they might be happy with, you never know they might be more ameanable than you think..

I'd have thought your neighbours would be happier with a nice looking wooden stable type building rather than a tarp pile covered in old tyres to weigh it down !!
 
Have you applied for planning? I'm in an area which is known for being difficult but got what I wanted approved pretty easily. I applied for a static 24'x24' as people were saying how difficult it was having to move mobile shelters around. I spoke to the planners quite a bit before and during the process which really helped. I had a good idea of what materials would be approved and which location they would agree to and they gave me advice on what to do.
 
Metal shipping containers are widely regarded by planning officers as non mobile as they don't have skids or wheels and are not readily moveable. Not sure if there's been a test case tho. Also not great for hay storage as that needs lots of ventilation (livestock trailer better).

Re shelters outside aonbs national parks conservation areas you are less likely to have to keep moving it, but they could still demand it. NB my understanding is that the law actually only says it must be moveable, anything more is policy only hence why it varies by area.
 
Yep !! I got in bother with the council for not moving them. Fields were overlooked by very horrible neighbours and a busy body went telling tales to the council. So needless to day they paid us a visit one day. Some people are such a&ses !!
 
You say that this is next to your garden. Could you not put it in your garden and call it a stable. You don't always need PP for a stable in the garden. Loophole in the law. Might be worth a try.
 
We had a letter through from the council when we had one when we had the ponies at home - it was completely out if sight from everyone in our paddock although some busybody still reported it and we had to prove it was mobile - which it was as it was on skids.
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
I would like to buy a nice piece of green belt land. If I build a house on it, but I put a couple of skids under it, could I say it wasn't permanent so I won't need planning permission & so I could live in it & possibly move it a couple of feet every so often? I don't think so....
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Well yes, you could, but luckily the practicality of putting skids under a house would prevent you from doing so, and what would you move it with? A mobile shelter is quite small usually, so can be moved and if it isn't then you have to be a bit unlucky for anyone to care.

They did a Kevin McCloud 'manmade home' programme where they did just this - they put the little log cabin on a lorry flatbed type construction, it wasn't something just anyone could bodge together!
 
mandwhy said:
Well yes, you could, but luckily the practicality of putting skids under a house would prevent you from doing so, and what would you move it with? A mobile shelter is quite small usually, so can be moved and if it isn't then you have to be a bit unlucky for anyone to care.

They did a Kevin McCloud 'manmade home' programme where they did just this - they put the little log cabin on a lorry flatbed type construction, it wasn't something just anyone could bodge together!
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The planning regulations more than adequately cover houses with skids ,or to be more prcise wheels. We call them caravans or mobile homes. They are an entirely different matter to field shelters or hay barns on skids.
 
Would the requirements for a structure to be "movable" under planning law have anything to do with the legal principle that "what is attached to the land becomes part of the land"?

How the law treats a movable item is entirely different to how it treats land and what is attached to it. For example, conveyances of land must be evidenced in writing. That doesn't apply to "movables".

So, perhaps the point is not whether the shelter is moved periodically but that it can be. There is a subtle difference.
 
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If the neighbour is the nosy type and likely to report, I wouldn't put it against his land. Its just waving a red flag at him.. Personally I would be making another flat area in a less obvious part of the field, or the back of your garden.

We put up a shelter without permission five years ago, it was in a fairly discreet area. A year later we moved it to the yard and added another one. Nobody has ever said anything. We have been lucky, someone else in the area had to move hers and apply for planning permission..

Moving the shelter, even with skids, if your land is not smooth and flat, is a blimmin hard job!
 
We have just put up a 24x12 shelter on skids, but in order we could move it to another field which involves a hard track, we paid extra to have massively heavy duty castors and wheels that can be put on (but does require our tractor to lift the shelter slightly to slip the caster cradles under the base plate.

Just moving round a flat field the skids should be ok tho. But you wouldnt want to do it often.
 
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