The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Buildings & planning => Topic started by: thescot82 on April 26, 2022, 10:02:35 am
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Hi.
Looking for advice on extending a driveway over some pasture / agricultural land. Unsure if it would be deemed permitted development. The Planning Portal https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/patio-and-driveway/planning-permission (https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/patio-and-driveway/planning-permission) suggests I should be fine but thought best to ask this community for any further guidance.
I'm buying a house with an adjoining field to the rear, there is a wall and gate dividing the formal back garden and the field. The field has an existing driveway (about 100m) to provide access to the main road although over the years, the field has been parcelled off and sold to neighbours so now the driveway mostly serves the neighbour two over. It's a straight drive from main road to the neighbouring property.
I would like to fork the driveway about halfway along so that I can create an offshot to come up to the wall at the back of my property. I wouldn't look to create a hard tarmac drive, but rather something less intrusive and more like what I understand to be call grass blocks to enable the land to be permeable.
My concern being that if the field is deemed agricultural (which I assume it is, but don't know for certain), could extending the driveway be deemed as a change in use and so permitted development would not be applicable?
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Quite honestly - I would just do it.
You're planning something unobtrusive so no one is likely to complain and tell the planners, or even care - should they notice it. There is already an entrance so it will affect no one else. Do not call it a driveway - it is an existing track that you are re-instating and it would be very difficult for anyone to prove otherwise.