manege in the back garden?

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gnubee

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We are currently looking at a number of equestrian properties, and it seems that whilst land and stables arent too hard to find, a decent sized arena is pretty ellusive, but as I could only ride after work most nights a lit riding surface would be pretty much essential for me in winter.

I have been looking into the planning implications, and it appears that if you want to put one on the field area it needs planning for change of use and would need additional permission for the lighting, which is putting me off buying anything as I wouldnt find out if I could have the arena until after I had purchased the property.

I was wondering whether anyone had successfully avoided the planning issue by turning the back garden of the house itself into a riding surface. Security lights from the house would then do the lighting, and I cant see that it would be change of use from the existing zoning, and would be pretty equivalent to those people who dig up their lawns and put gravel etc. down instead which I'm pretty sure doesnt need planning consent. Has anyone had any experience of doing this which might provide a starting point for my investigations?
 
I know I am in a National Park status area, so laws are very strict, but I think you would still need to get planning permission both for the school and the lighting. We got permission for our school but not any lighting, and you could find if you try to "sneak" a school into your garden that the authorities insist you return to its former "garden" staus, so do be careful!
 
gnubee said:
I have been looking into the planning implications, and it appears that if you want to put one on the field area it needs planning for change of use and would need additional permission for the lighting, which is putting me off buying anything as I wouldnt find out if I could have the arena until after I had purchased the property.
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I stand to be corrected, but I beleive you can apply for planning permission on land or property that does not belong to you, and you do not need the landowners consent - weird I know.

but near me there was ahouse for sale and they had notification of a planning application for an extension on the back which had been applied for by someone who had viewed the house and had made an offer, but they did not own the house yet. Anyway, permission was granted and they bought the house and built the extension. Presumably if it had been turned down they would not have bought the house.
 
Thats interesting to know about applying before you purchase the property; could definitely be a way to minimise the risk of getting something that won't work.

We definitely wouldnt be trying to break planning rules with it, just looking for ways to perhaps work round them at the moment without doing anything which would cause problems if we were "found out". Once I have any information from here on top of my current research I was planning on contacting the planning dept with the relevant council anyway to make sure cos its too much to spend to risk having to take it out again later if my interpretation of the rules differs from theirs.
 
you can always ask the local planning officer to come out and inspect a property that you're interested in and they could give you their opinion. But it would only be an opinion, not a decision, obviously.
 
At my last yard they put lights on alternating fence posts which lit the school pretty well. Don't need planning for those apparently. You had to be pretty careful that you didn't knock them off as you rode past, and I wouldn't have wanted to jump using those as the middle of the arena was a bit gloomy but they actually worked OK.
 
I am pretty sure that wheras stables come into the permitted outbuilding scenario within the curtilage of a domestic dwelling, the rules on new drives etc ie things with lots of groundworks are now pretty strict because of the risks of pollution, groundwater run off etc . So I believe you would need PP for a manege not safe to assume it comes under the same exemption.

Lights, yes you can have lights on your house for 'security' that happen to light at least part of an arena BUT if they cause a nuisance to your neighbours (which may be more likely if close by on your house than on an arena) then this would come under the normal nuisance abatement officer type thing and they could make you tone/take them down.

Theres another thing though, a manege taking up most of a garden would devalue the house substantially - do you really want to do that?
 
My friend did not require planning consent to put an unlit manege within the boundary of an existing garden. At ground level, she was todl that you can do what you like with a garden, and erect a fence up to 2m high.
 
Beware though that it's the curtilage of your dwelling that counts, not garden! I was pretty miffed to find that my "garden" is mostly not garden at all, according to the planners.

However I currently have a weedy patch of garden-that-isn't-garden heavily mulched with Terram and woodchip to keep down weeds.
 
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