Government clarifies position on polytunnel planning

The Government has clarified its stance on the development control issues surrounding polytunnels in the light of last year's High Court judgment over an enforcement case involving the Hall Hunter partnership and their activities at Tuesley Farm in Surrey.

The clarification has been set out in a letter to chief planning officers in England from Communities and Local Government chief planner Paul Hudson.

In this letter Hudson made it clear that last year's ruling did not mean that "all future polytunnels will necessarily need planning permission".

He stressed that whether particular polytunnels constituted development would still depend on the type and scale of the proposals including size, degree of permanence and physical attachment to the ground.

On the question of whether polytunnels are permitted development because of the provisions for agriculture and agricultural buildings, the letter made it plain that polytunnels would represent farm buildings subject to the current limitations on size.

The critical limitation here is that there is a restriction on the area that "buildings" can cover, currently set at 465 square metres. Although more than one "building" can be erected at a time, they must be 90m from another building.

Hudson's letter said: "If there are no planning objections to the unauthorised polytunnel, there may be no need for a local planning authority to take enforcement action merely to regularise the situation. The better course of action is to invite a retrospective planning application."

The letter concluded: "A local planning authority should continue to assess the planning status of a particular polytunnel proposal on a case by case basis."