"sarah" wrote in message
...
Stan The Man wrote:

Part of my garden originally belonged to the neighbouring farmer; the
previous owner of my property bought half a field from him 15 years ago
and has since integrated it into the original garden here - laying
turf, planting shrubs, creating borders, laying a brick patio, putting
up a couple of garden sheds, etc. However, she never applied to the
local authority to change the use of the acquired land from
agricultural to garden use. I'm led to believe that it should be
straighforward for me to make an application now for garden use based
on lawful development over more than 10 years.

David P is better on dates, but I think that after 11 years you have got
'presumed permission' or suchlike
I'm not actually sure whether you need to notify them or not now.

But I am curious to know
why I need to do it. What can't I do on agricultural land that I can do
on garden land - and vice versa? TIA.

To a certain extent it is purely a bureaucratic exercise, you are 'changing
the use' so they want you to get permission from them to 'change the use'

Because a garden is domestic, it will be rated differently, but you get some
perks.
As an example, I rent a field next to a domestic property. The chap has up
to 60 pot bellied pigs on that property ( a third of an acre which includes
the house) and no slurry facilities. Pig slurry runs off his 'garden' onto
the field creating a stinking quagmire.
If the pig slurry had been running the other way the Council would have been
round there like a shot (within hours of the complaint) and all hell would
have broken lose.
In this case it has taken nearly a year for them to get round to sending him
with a letter telling him he shouldn't do it and must stop.

This flags up other things. I can keep 60 pigs (but need planning and
environment agency permission for new buildings, slurry systems etc, the
former depending upon size.)
You on a garden can keep 60 pigs provided they aren't causing a nuisance

Jim Webster