A friend of mine has just been reported for putting up a tent on her land … had to go to see planning dept..... she already knew about the 28 day allowance …… she had only put up tent to repair it not sleep in it but planning tried to say it counted towards the 28 days!! So No you cant just roll up with a caravan and expect to sleep in it. (thank goodness or the countryside would be full!!)
A. It shows that neighbours can, indeed, be a critical factor for the use of one's small-holding !! (Large holdings won't have so many nosey neighbours able to oversee every move.)
B. I would say the planning officer was wrong. While it might be presumed that a tent will be erected for camping, it could just as easily be used as a temporary structure for, say, dry storage (or tent repairs) - no different to a routinely moved field-shelter for example. As long as one does NOT actually sleep in it AND the tent is moved routinely (say monthly) it must surely fall into the permitted moveable structure category (eh ??) and the onus must surely fall on the disgruntled neighbour and/or planning officer to prove that one has been using a tent for camping and then whether the camping has been more than 28 days in a year.