Janet Galpin and Oliver Patterson wrote in
:

The message
from Chris Nellist
contains these words:

"Drakanthus" wrote in
:

How do the English laws and regulations governing 'designated
agricultural land' come into play when someone wants to convert
farmland into garden??

What actually happens if someone buys somewhere in the country with
a few acres, and starts turning a field previously used for
agriculture or grazing into a large garden? Maybe rearranging a few
internal boundaries in the process.

There was a feature on the local (Midlands) TV news a few years ago.
A farmer, who was a very keen and competent gardener, had extended his
flower garden (quite substantially) into one of his fields - and made
a stunning job of it, with several flower borders a lawn, pond, summer
house etc. Really nice. BUT he didn't get planning permission / change
of usage agreed first. It made the news because the local authority
insisted he had to rip up the entire wonderful garden and convert it
back to farm land. What a colossal waste of time and money. The farmer
was absolutely gutted as you would expect.

Bloody local councils!

Is there still such a thing as a ten year rule whereby if you have
actually been changing the use of the land for ten years without anyone
protesting, it will be rubber-stamped by the council on application?

I don't know, but before we bought our current house (I did the checks and
conveyancing), we learnt that the previous owners had failed to obtain a
completion certificate for the conversion of a garage to residential use. I
contacted the council and they said it was too long ago for them to have
any objections now. It was less than 10 years, can't recall exactly how
long off-hand. In severe cases you can ask for a letter of comfort. In this
case though the differences between what was built and what was supposed to
be built were very minor, and I accepted the position having noted down the
name of the bloke from the council and the time of our conversation. In
more serious cases it would of course be sensible to get the council's view
in writing, i.e. a letter of comfort.

Chris