Planning permission for sheds

[BarleySugar]

We are in the process of setting up a new allotment site, and because it is new we've had to apply for planning permission for sheds. We've even had to specify the type (pent), door at the front, and 8 by 6. Everyone will have to have the same once we finally get onto the site, and we've had to specify positions too.
We've also got to get planning for a car park, because residents nearby are worried about the parking, traffic and mud on the road. Sensible things to consider, but they are a bit OTT about it all.
The council has been very slow signing the lease with the landowner, it is 6 months since we were told yes, and we thought we had a chance of planting this year. Well we might be on by autumn!

[Aberdeenplotter]

Totally over the top to insist on planning permission being obtained. Not sure about English legislation but in Scotland, every allotment holder is allowed a shed on his allotment as an absolute right..

A local authority up here can make regulations as regards the size, shape, colour and siting and anything else it wants to regulate about sheds but they do need to have such regulations formally confirmed at government level after publication and full public consultation to be able to enforce them.

[VirginVegGrower]

We applied to the parish council to have a shed as others on the PC run site have them. We were told "no" and that we can't discuss it again for six months. We only want a sentry style tool store. We are going to put one on anyway and they will have to make everybody take theirs down too if we get told to.

[EddieJ]

Sounds reasonable to me. Nothing looks worse than a shanty town of sheds constructed from pallets or old rubbish found in a skip.

Same goes for the carpark in respect of planning. At least that way, the location and construction method will satisfy current regulations. You are also going to need a qualified contractor to carry out the crossover from the carpark to the road.

[SarzWix]

I can think of lots of things that look worse, amongst them perfectly useable doors, windows and timber going to landfill! And somewhere down the list is council workers being paid with our taxes to come up with petty rules about the size and shape of sheds

[EddieJ]

I can think of lots of things that look worse.

Such as the many compost areas that are in various states of poor construction and disarray.

[SarzWix]

The purpose of an allotment is to grow food, not to win awards for how much money you can spend on 'stuff'. You may be obsessive about tidiness, not everybody is. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, not how much you spent on the oven or how many times you polished it...

[Alison]

Totally agree Sarah, am very glad that our plot is about growing and not beautifying the place

[EddieJ]

not to win awards for how much money you can spend on 'stuff'.

I would like you to expand upon this comment?

I am guessing that you are quite happy to pay a pittance for your plot, which is undoubtedly heavily subsidised at the expense of tax payers. So why should the tax paying public subsidise your hobby, and then also humour you further by allowing you to side track planning regulations which are in place for a reason.
I don't have an allotment, and time would prevent me from traveling and looking after one, but I am quite happy for my tax money to subsidise allotments, and see them as one of the most positives steps towards community spirit and the well being of those that use them. I do object though, when people simply want to take and take.

I also agree that all allotments should have storage facilities for hand tools etc, but strongly object to these sheds being used for people to store junk from home in, which seems to be what happens.

I also feel that every allotment up and down the country should have a shop of some means or another in which to sell at 'cost price' excess produce. The same building could also be used as a means of community centre for allotment holders, which again is no bad thing.

[SarzWix]

The laws and rights related to allotments were set up at the same time as Enclosure, when the common man had his rights to common land taken away. The point of them being subsidised by taxes was that the people who ended up with all the land paid the taxes, they are supposed to be a 'peppercorn' rent. How would you consider that to be 'take and take'? Perhaps we should all just take 'our' land back instead? The same laws give you the right to demand an allotment too, if you want one.

Would you object to a rented house being used to store 'junk' in? Incidentally, I have never seen an allotment shed used to 'store junk from home', they're all too full of tools and the necessary accoutrements needed to run a plot. Tidy, they may not be though. I'm not prone to running a white-gloved finger along the surfaces in my shed...

Planning laws aren't being argued with, the interpretation of those laws however... They have no jurisdiction over the design of a shed in my back-garden, so why the ones on an allotment?!

[EddieJ]

Thank you for explaining. I don't agree, but thank you.

I wouldn't object to a rented house being used to store junk in. Whats that about! It's being paid for by a private individual at the market rate, council tax/rates are being charged on it, and it is not being subsidised by the tax paying public. Anyone storing house hold junk at an allotment should be charged rates accordingly. In respect of sheds, I would have thought that a plastic or wooden storage container is big enough to keep a few hand tools in, and possibly a tiller. As you have stated, an allotment is for growing things on.

This comment is completely wrong

They have no jurisdiction over the design of a shed in my back-garden, so why the ones on an allotment?!

Take a look at the government planning portal.


I'd still like you to answer this.

win awards for how much money you can spend on 'stuff'.

[FionaH]

I think Sarz point is that allotments are to be productive, not picture perfect.

You have been around this forum long enough to have noticed that we are a friendly bunch. Try and keep your posts in that spirit eh?

[SarzWix]

From 1 October 2008 outbuildings will be considered to be permitted development, not needing planning permission, subject to the following limits and conditions:

* No outbuilding forward of the principal elevation fronting a highway.
* Outbuildings and garages to be single storey with maximum eaves height of 2.5 metres and maximum overall height of four metres with a dual pitched roof or three metres for any other roof.
* Maximum height 2.5 metres within two metres of a boundary.
* No verandas, balconies or raised platforms.
* More than half the area of land around the “original house”* would be covered by additions or other buildings.
* In National Parks, the Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and World Heritage Sites the maximum area to be covered by buildings, enclosures, containers and pools more than 20 metres from house to be limited to 10 square metres.
* Within the curtilage of listed buildings any outbuilding will require planning permission.

Covers maximum heights etc., doesn't specify a design.


As for spending on 'stuff' - if people aren't supposed to re-use materials to build things because it's messy, then they have to buy it?

Our plots don't cost the tax-payer anything at all - we get no services from the council whatsoever. The site is run by an unpaid committee, we pay our rent to them and the council leases the land to the Association. The Association are responsible for paths, boundaries, water, insurance... Not sure where the cost to the taxpayer is?!

And as I said, out of 64 plots on our site, I don't know anyone who uses their shed to fill with junk from home. Do you?

[VirginVegGrower]

My old boss used to say you can't educate pork - or planning jobsworths it seems. We were planning a brand new shed, post and rail fencing having put in raised bed timberwork using new timber. Hardly junk! Anyhow my shed is going up with a sign saying henhouse. 1950 allotment law says council cannot refuse this one! Stuff that in your gold plated pension pot!

[arpoet]

Our council have just produced a new set of rules for allotments and a posh booklet. It states sizes for sheds and greenhouses and polly tunnels, but if they inforce it on existing stuctures them most allotment holders across the city will have a problem.
There are well over a hundred plots of varying shapes and sizes on our site and most of the sheds have been home made and adapted over the years, often made from recycled materials that would otherwise have gone to land fill sites.
If a plot holder works out his profit and loss over a year, taking in to account all costs, then i doubt that many would show enough profit to buy a brand new mass produced shed (probably imported) that would conform to the 'Jobworth' Rules!
Plust the old, and still usable sheds, would have to go to landfill..
Daft if you ask me.
Roger