Planning departments double standards :(

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Beatrice5

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Due to all this wet weather I started thinking how I could improve my set up for next winter on a limited budget. We have just under 2 acres at home with an ancient field shelter and a woodchip corral or about 17m x 14m which is currently flooded with a river running through it.

So I thought I'd do an area of hardstanding for feeding haylage, storing hay / straw under a tarpaulin and maybe having a moveable field shelter on.

I phoned the planning office for advice and was told - If the hardstanding was for agricultural use then no I would not need planning as it was for horses then I would need planning permission at around £350.

I was kinda thinking it would only cost me a few hundred to get a 16 tonnes lorry of some form of sand / gravel / hardcore in the first place.

Any suggestions? Has anyone else overcome this ?
 
Borrow some sheep for the duration of the process, and an old field roller or other agri equipement that needs to be stored! I'm not kidding - friends did just this.
 
Watch out that the planners dont start regarding the moveable field shelter as permanent and needing its own PP once you stick it onto a concrete base, esp one you have put down as agricultural.....

Personally I would bite the bullet and pay up. If you got into planning headaches it would cost a lot more than £350 to try and fight it and no guarantee of success. Its just part of the costs.

If you did without the shelter and got the sheep in but no field shelter you would have a better chance of chancing the agric argument I reckon.
 
The field shelter isn't totally necessary and wouldn't be on concrete and would be moved up the field in the summer. It would only be on the hardstanding if needed in the winter.

Just think it stinks that the same rules don't apply for all.
 
It's not double standard by the planning authority it's that farmers have very active Unions such as NFU and the CLA and therefore enormous political influence so often laws that apply to any other business don't apply to agricultural activities although it is fair to say that they have plenty of other Regulations that affect them. It is somewhat justifiable as they need things to run a business and be profitable especially as their profit margins are very small whilst you need it for pleasure so it is not a necessity.

Also as you are in a flood plain any development you carry out may cause or increase flooding elsewhere and the more concrete laid the less water soaks away and the quicker it enters watercourses causing more incidents of flash-flooding. That is why the planning process is there so that those that might be affected can be properly consulted.
 
Blimey, I wouldn't have even thought of applying for planning permission for hard standing. I would personally just ignore it and go ahead. Say it was already there. They wouldn't know!
 
LOL :D On a flood plain I certainly am not. 330 ft above sea leavel on top of a massive Brendan hill I am indeed.

We are on clay soil so that is my problem with the corral.

I don't want concrete - I want gravel to aid soaking away and the run off would go into my 1/2 acre garden which is very well drained unlike the blinkin paddock!

I did think of the it was already there thing but as Clerk to the Parish council I have to behave myself. But sheep are a definate maybe :)
 
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