What counts as starting planning permission.

fatsheep_2

Hi guys
Nieghbouring farmer has planning permission (2001) to put static caravans in a field as a small caravan site.
This will have lapsed unless he can show that he has started the development.
What would count as starting the work, given that he has had 7 years to do it?

Imp

For a house it is normally putting in foundations.

poppysarah

3 years isn't it?

He's allowed 5 an acre anyway.

Debt_Free_Chick

Surely he need only have had one caravan there at any time?

This is not so much development, but a matter of use.

Davesnave

Surely any work like this would have to begin with roadways & site drainage, so everything else is ancilliary to that. PlanningOfficer may be along shortly & he will know.
I do know most LA Development Plans now talk about encouraging chalets rather than static caravans, which are seen as a bit down-market. Could be hard to get PP for caravans now if he has to re-apply.
Is that what you're thinking?

Debt_Free_Chick

Development is not automatically necessary for a static caravan - it depends on the terms of the PP given.

Two local fields have PP for five static caravans. They have absolutely no facilities at all - no electric, drainage water etc - and no constructed access. You just drive off the road, through the gate and onto the field. But, as they're agricultural land, they had to get PP (change of use) in order to let out pitches for touring caravans.

It really depends on the specific approval - and whether there were any conditions attached.

Static caravans on agricultural land could be to house temporary/seasonal workers or for storage - again, with no "development" consequences

Davesnave

That's interesting. I decided not to take further interest in property that came with a touring caravan (CCL) site, because the LA wouldn't let me put a couple of statics on there. I argued that I'd need the statics to make it worth my while to upgrade the tourer's facilities (which, as in your example, were primitive) but they weren't interested. Off the record, it was suggested to me that the LA didn't give a stuff about CCL sites, since people who use them don't give much money to the local economy and get cheap holidays!

fatsheep_2

Hi Guys, thanks for the comments so far.
Although in my case the guy is a farmer, the permissions were for statics to be used as holiday caravans not for him or his workers.

He has no vans there now or has done since the permission was granted. No hardstandings laid, no lecky or water supply to that part of the field and no site licience applied for.
He could possibly claim to have put in an access track although this got washed away in a flood!
He has maybe done some soft landscaping, ie planted a few half hearted trees to shield the site.

Do we think a planning officer might agree that he has let the permission for development lapse?

This is a conservation area and I'm thinking that given the chance, planning might quite like a rethink on allowing a small caravan site to spring up.
Cheers

Debt_Free_Chick

Well, you could try. But in rural areas, small discreet "developments" of farmland get a sympathetic hearing, due to PPS 7 Sustainable Development in Rural Areas which recognises that farmers need to diversify to survive.

I'm in an AONB and small sites of up to five caravans seem to get have few, if any, planning difficulties.

You can only ask .... but are you really that bothered?

Richard_Webster

It sounds like a change of use which would involve simply placing some of the caravans there. This wouldn't be the same as "operational development" where there are all these arguments about digging trenches etc.

If the farmer now seeks to implement the permission (out of time) you could complain but the Council might say that it wasn't expedient to serve an enforcement notice because in their view planning permission was likely tot be granted. They might well suggest he applied for planning permission. You could object - but would have to show some significant change in circumstances/planning policies since the permission was given.