Topic: Shipping container

[pumkinlover]

Can any of you whose site have one of these tell me if they were expected to obtain planning permission.
Also if anyone has links to specific information on whether you need planning permission it would be great.
We understood that as the container has no services and has no foundations and is not permanent it does not need planning permission, I now need to go a stage further than that and have evidence to support this.
Thanks

[slyfox-mal]

we have about 5 or 6 on our site and no planning was needed and in fact the council put some of them on there   for the pigeon men to store there baskets and such like in as for the legality of it i really dont know

[pumkinlover]

Thanks slyfox mal,
Anyone else?

[daveyboi]

Things to consider

Firstly if there are any restrictions on the site like needing permission for sheds and greenhouses if so most likely you would need permission.

Secondly normally planning is not  needed where you have an existing building and this would be part of permitted development unless there are conditions again on the original planning. (like house or farm buildings)

Otherwise planning permission is likely to be required unless it is very temporary.

[goodlife]

I can't be any help neither...though we have one on our site to store compost and fertilizers for the shop. We've had it some years now.. purchased before my time..and I can sure nobody wouldn't even think about possibility of any planning laws.
We are on 'our own land' though and our deeds do not restrict that sort of 'development' neither.

[Lady of the Land]

We have a shipping container on site and - the council applied for planning permission on our behalf. It was agreed we could have it and it would be reviewed in 5 years, so far this has not happened and continue to use

[Jeanbean]

Our association is divided into sites. About 3 years ago another site put a container on a council owned but association run site and this put the cat amongst the pigeons. My understanding is that as the container is on Council owned land then planning in our borough is required. They had to apply retrospectively. One of our sites wanted 2 containers. For whatever reasons, I am still unclear, it took 2.5 years to get the permission. Earlier this year permission was granted but the tooing and froing to get this permission has not been strightforward.
This might just be our council's approach to containers and not the norm. It is said that the planning for these containers has a limited amount of time for the containers to be sited. It might be best to ask your local council's planning department or even your allotments officer before you put one on site and then find they ask you to remove it. If you are a private site I should imagine it would be up to you to make sure you are complying with council requirements. I am no expert on this, just relating the difficulties we encountered. Hope it helps

[Unwashed]

I don't have any experience of this and know next to nothing about planning, but my guess is that a planning department might well consider the permanent placement of a container to be "development", and I think the decision is pretty much up to them, constrained only by legal precedent of planning appeals.  In short, if the planners say it needs permission then it will cost you much more to establish that they are wrong then it would simply to apply for permission.  Whether you get it is another matter.

Councils have deemed consent for development that supports their statutory undertaking, so just because a council puts a container on a council managed site without permission doesn't mean you can.