Use of Agricultural Land - help please!

cuffie

We have seen a house we like which has "Agricultural land" at the back of the property. Having looked into it a bit more, I understand that we cannot use it as a "domestic garden", but does that mean my children can't play on it, or have a paddling pool on it, or play football on it? Can someone help please? We don't want to be paying for land that we can't use! (we wouldnt want to build on it or anything). Thanks. x

BobProperty

As cut and paste from somewhere:
As defined by Section 336 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 which indicates that Agriculture includes "... horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, the breeding and keeping of livestock (including any creature kept for the production of food, wool, skins or fur, or for the purpose of its use in the farming of land), the use of land as grazing land, meadow land, osier land, market gardens and nursery grounds, and the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes...".
So the activities you list are not allowed, it doesn't even include horse riding believe it or not!
Kitchen garden and growing your own herbs and veg is about the best I can see you getting away with.

Debt_Free_Chick

Despite the wording of the T&CPA, I think your kids are alright playing on the land. Of course, if it were being farmed then neither your nor any other farmer would want kids playing on the crops! However, it would simply be your private land and you would be allowing whomever you wanted to use it purely for recreational use.

The important thing is not to erect any kind of structure that would not normally appear on agricultural land e.g. wendy house, summer house etc and don't turn it into something that resembles a garden. In particular, do NOT remove any boundary marking this as agricultural land.

Although it's agricultural there is nothing to force you to farm it - but it might be worth considering. Lavender is pretty big around here at the moment and is relatively easy to grow, even on a large scale

You might want to investigate whether the land currently gets anything under the Rural Payments Scheme - or what you would have to do to qualify. The RPS pays farmers for managing the land and you may not have to do much ...

cuffie

I have done some more investigating and you are right - looks like a problem if there were any permanent fixed structure, not if they were just kicking a ball around, and there are a couple of rulings that go in our favour. Didnt know about these payments though - thanks DFC...
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