Own Land Planning: free planning service

In many cases, if you tick the requirements below you wont need a Full Planning Application, if your goal is to have a lodge in your Garden or Curtilage then all you need is our help to obtain a LDC, so the procedure detailed below may not be required for your needs !

It’s surprisingly true that laws relating to touring caravans, the type you tow behind a car, also apply to mobile home and static caravans: a type that can be significantly larger and suitable for year-round residential accommodation. Caravans, including mobile homes up to 65x22ft, can be sited in the direct garden of a house without planning permission IF they are used by members of the household as additional living space not as independent accommodation.

If your GOAL meets the criteria below, we will NOT need to follow a full Planning Application we will need obtain for you an LDC

The caravan must be in the ‘curtilage’ of a dwelling house. This is the drive or garden, not adjoining paddock land, for example. In James v Secretary of State for the Environment 1990 it was held that there are three criteria for determining whether land is within the curtilage of a building, namely:

■ physical layout

■ ownership, past and present

■ use or function, past and present

The actual structure must conform to the legal definition of a ‘caravan’ described in the Caravans Sites and Control of Development Acts 1960 and Associated Articles.

Appeal Decision by the Secretary of State (Erewash Borough Council 2002) determined that there are 3 tests to be applied to the park home:

■ construction test

■ mobility test

■ size test

The use must be incidental to the use of the house, meaning used in conjunction with. There are 4 accepted ‘incidental’ tests, reported to the House of Commons (Hansard, for 22 November 2005) as arising from relevant case law. These are:

■ the relationship between the respective occupants
■ the relative size of the house, its garden and the caravan
■ the relative scale of accommodation in the caravan and the house
■ the degree to which the caravan is functionally connected to and subordinate to the use of the dwelling house

In the modern planning system the pre-application phase is where key issues are expected to be resolved, as far as possible.

If a scheme is submitted which fails to meet published planning policy requirements and there have been no meaningful pre-application discussions, that could be regarded as an unreasonable approach.

Such an application runs the risk of being refused without further negotiation. The majority of our Applications will proceed through this phase.
Some of the benefits of pre-application advice are:

Giving you an opportunity to explain your needs.
Establishing planning policy requirements.
Commencing a dialogue towards resolving any planning issues that your proposal raises.
Identifying what information is required for a valid application to be submitted.
Advice will be set out in writing, including a record of advice given in pre-application meetings.

Once we receive a response from your local planning office, we will report back to you on the results of the Pre App

If favourable we will proceed with an application for you, this is all handled in house and the application costs are paid in full by TheLynx.

Commitment Deposit is a deposit paid by you of £250 to TheLynx to appoint us and Ebable Architecture to represent you for your application, this is Fully Refundable if we succeed or fail with your application this fee is required to authorise our appointment and make full representation on you behalf with this application.

The application is submitted and we now sit and wait for the numerous discussions to take place and finally a final decision for your application.

Time = Between 3 and 6 months in our experience the later being exceptional on average 3 months is the normal.

Its going to take time so relax and wait for news !

While we wait on the local planners you will be having a day trip to Devon !

The Lynx will meet you at our Design Studio to put together a full specification of your new Lodge. If you are some distance from us we will arrange a Flight for 2 from your local airport to Exeter and overnight accommodation, on us.

During this visit you will choose:

Soft Furnishings
Kitchen Design
Floor Coverings
Bathroom Style
Fixtures & Fittings
Lodge Design Which Will Be CAD Drawn
Choose Furniture
Meet In House Designer
Colours & Lodge Finishes

The end result will be a full be-spoke personal design specification which will be taken away by Pathfinder, they will work their magic and a few weeks later you will get a Full Floor Plan, Full Specification and most importantly a fixed quote to manufacture your Lodge.  All ready for the decision from the local planners.

There’s nothing better than receiving an email from us to say your planning has been approved, what now ?

The Lynx will agree a delivery date for your Lodge and the balance payment will be due around 14 days prior to delivery. Lodges take around 3 to 6 months to produce.

Site Preparation and Delivery

Your Lodge will sit on a concrete base, like the picture, it will made up of 6inc of hard-core and topped with 6inc of concrete, this is best done by a local contractor we will provide a plan where services need to be provided.

You will need Electricity, Water & Gas to your Lodge contact local tradesmen to quote for this as soon as you can, most Gas is provided via bottles/tank as LPG. We can provide the load required for Electricity.

We will need to organise Transport for you.

The Lynx will guide you through this process and will supply base plans and instructions, we can even do all the work for you.