Burger vans and planning rules

Eliza_2

Good morning all

I was just wondering if anyone knows about rules for keeping burger/ice cream vans. I was talking to a friend at the weekend who lives in a rural area in a National Park and her neighbour runs a burger/ice cream etc van business. There are around 8 vans and a couple of caravans parked at his house and they go out and come back at various times during the day and night including weekends. None of this has bothered her so far as now that trees have greened up she can't see them.

However over the previous week or so the van collection seems to have overspilled onto fields which she can see from her house and she is wondering what the rules are and if she can check out what he is and isn't allowed to do. She's chatted to him about it but he is so proud of his growing business that he didn't really see her concern. He did tell her he had fallen out with another neighbour over something so she doesn't want to fall out with him herself. Mostly my friend's attitude is that she is also pleased he is doing well and that she doesn't want to rock the boat but on the other hand doesn't want to wake up in the morning to the sight of a beefburger/chip van outside the window!

Can anyone advise on how she might approach this with him or even check what permission he might have been granted? Maybe none is needed.

Many thanks

Liz

poppysarah

Council website for change of use/planning permission for his address. Ring the council if there's nothing and make enquiries.

If he is using his home as a depot then that's probably something that would require permission.

Is it disturbing her sleep?

princeofpounds

Council. Running a business from a residential address is often not permitted, particularly if it involved heavy equipment (as it seems to do). But it will depend on the exact circumstances. They are more likely to be annoyed if he is not paying his business rates.

Eliza_2

Thanks, will pass the info on. I've looked at the planning portal website and can't see anything about that property other than something about building an agricultural barn for sheep a few years ago (this person also runs a few sheep in his fields)

No idea if it's disturbing her sleep, she hasn't mentioned it, I think really it's the visual impact rather than anything else.

Thank you again

Liz

lincroft1710

I think you will find if the "fields" are designated agricultural land and your friend's neighbour is using them for something other than agricultural activities he is contravening planning law.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Eliza wrote: »

Mostly my friend's attitude is that she is also pleased he is doing well and that she doesn't want to rock the boat

Best leave it at that then.

but on the other hand doesn't want to wake up in the morning to the sight of a beefburger/chip van outside the window!

Why?

Seems a bit bizarre to complain that a neighbour is parking his own vehicles on his own land.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

lincroft1710 wrote: »

I think you will find if the "fields" are designated agricultural land and your friend's neighbour is using them for something other than agricultural activities he is contravening planning law.

I also think you'll find that so long as the vehicles are properly registered and insured, he could quite legally park them on the street right outside his neighbours house.

Which is precisely what I'd do if some busybody tried to stop me parking them on land I owned.

princeofpounds

Seems a bit bizarre to complain that a neighbour is parking his own vehicles on his own land.

It's a bit like the travellers situation. It's not so much that they are developing green fields, but that no-one else is allowed to do it so it's not fair play that they should get to break the rules with impunity. If the guy is operating a business and not paying rates then that means everyone else has to pay more than they should through their own council tax/rates.

Plus frankly I'd hate the sight of burger vans myself, though I recognise that distaste is not a legal argument it certainly is a fair reason to enforce a separate valid legal argument.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

princeofpounds wrote: »

It's a bit like the travellers situation. It's not so much that they are developing green fields, but that no-one else is allowed to do it so it's not fair play that they should get to break the rules with impunity.

There's a big difference between parking your empty vehicles overnight on land you own and developing a residential community without permission in the green belt.

If the guy is operating a business and not paying rates then that means everyone else has to pay more than they should through their own council tax/rates.

Nobody knows if he's paying business rates or not.

And having a home office (ancillary to his farm) where no customers come and go and no business is transacted, it is questionable as to whether business rates apply anyway.

Parking your work vehicles outside your house is not reason enough to claim a premises is a business.

Plus frankly I'd hate the sight of burger vans myself,

So what if it was a tractor parked overnight in his field?

What's the difference?

though I recognise that distaste is not a legal argument it certainly is a fair reason to enforce a separate valid legal argument.

I doubt there's anything that can be done, and if so, I rather suspect the alternative would be worse, and a relationship destroyed.

Eliza_2

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Best leave it at that then.



Why?

Seems a bit bizarre to complain that a neighbour is parking his own vehicles on his own land.

I know, I agree, personally I'd far rather look at a scruffy collection of burger vans than green fields with lambs etc, but there's no accounting for taste is there.

The National Park is so intent on retaining the area as a tourist destination to the detriment of the lives of locals that it's surprising they haven't clamped down on the activities of this guy.

Anyway she's probably best to try again to chat with him to see if he will move them a bit further out of sight. Hers is the only property that overlooks him so if he moves them the other side it's not as if it's passing the problem to someone else. Thanks for the help, will pass the comments on. Liz

lincroft1710

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I also think you'll find that so long as the vehicles are properly registered and insured, he could quite legally park them on the street right outside his neighbours house.

Which is precisely what I'd do if some busybody tried to stop me parking them on land I owned.

Just because a person owns land, it does not mean they can do just what they want with it, at least not south of the border.

Providing he was not causing an obstruction he could park his vehicles in the street. He might not be very popular though.