Don't you just love planning departments? We had a shared (awkward) access and applied for planning so we could have access from our bottom fields up to the house. We were told we didn't need it - they just gave advice on line of sight etc, which we followed.
Well, the track (pretty long) took us a couple of years to complete (doing it part-time, when we could fit it in) and, just as we were nearing the end, some busybody from the village complained to the council that we didn't have planning permission. After supplying all the original paperwork to the planning dept, we were told that we did NOT need planning for the access itself, but we DID for the track! We asked how on earth they thought we'd be able to drive uphill over muddy, often waterlogged fields, without a surfaced track, and they said they assumed all farmers had 4x4s!
Anyway, we had to apply for planning and eventually got it, but the conservation department (I used to work for a conservation charity, but these types can be a real pain in the arse sometimes because they don't live in the real world) wanted it to be just a plain grass track. That would have been no good to us, so we explained why we had laid down scalpings. Then they "compromised" and said it had to be covered with soil and grass seed! From what I remember, we told them we'd do what we could to make it blend in, and (touch wood), we've not heard anything for about three years. Let's hope it stays that way!