THE PARISH COUNCIL received the following advice on 20th May 2022 from Northumberland County Council's Planning Enforcement Officer regarding the construction of stables on allotment land.
"Firstly, the legislation which permits 'development' (buildings, structures, earthworks etc) without first requiring the benefit of planning permission is Schedule 2 of The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, often referred to as the 'GPDO'. This legislation covers everything from works within/to residential and commercial properties, agricultural buildings/land, services/utilities and everything in between and has many caveats and conditions imposed to each relevant section. The full legislation is available to view here - The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)
"In respect of allotment land, there are no specific 'permitted development' rights to construct buildings without first requiring planning permission, however, we would suggest sheds/greenhouses/small ancillary storage buildings, polytunnels, chicken/poultry sheds etc which are common place on allotments throughout Northumberland would be developments which the Council would not pursue allotment tenants in respect of.
"The construction of a stable building would however always require planning permission on allotment land, as traditionally allotments are utilised for growing fruit/vegetables, keeping of hens, chickens, bees etc and would not include the stabling/keeping of horses, as equine developments/buildings fall outside of a 'community' use. This position is supported by previous planning decisions which the Council have made, including the refusal to grant planning permission for a 'stable' building at Lynemouth Allotments back in 2011 (Mr Dunn Plot 100-103), albeit the size of that building was likely considerably larger than the one subject to this correspondence. We have also received several pre-application enquiries for stable buildings on allotment land where we have outlined that planning permission is required.
"As a final definitive response, the erection of a stable building on Lynemouth Allotment land would require planning permission from the Council in our role as the Local Planning Authority".
