Planning Permission?

[ExpandedOldPaintballs]

Hi all
I am currently planning to set up a small site in the east midlands, having played (and Marshalled) at many levels for many years, but been stuck with this "Work" thing for the last few, I need to satisfy my itch, having just finished a reasonably well paid contract job, so have time and some funds to put into a new venture.

In speaking with a local land owner, he mentioned the *possible* need for planning permission for a site?

Can anyone shed any light on this?
It is a remote rural area, not in a conservation area or similar, not big, maybe 6-10 acres of mixed woodland.
It is intended to be a very minimal site to start with, IE no permanent structures, no hard-standing etc.

Any experience with this?

 

[Tom]

You may be able to get away without planning permission without permanent structures, but there have been issues in the past they potential sites have had even with just poles for netting.
You could find bigger problems by going ahead first and then hitting difficulty when you get started

Not only is planning permission required for building permanent structures but could also be required just for change of use

Contact the ukpsf for advice on setting up a site and dealing with councils, local government, insurers and suppliers etc plus on ways of setting up a business.

http://www.ukpsf.com

There are things you can do on a minimal basis, but there are also things you want to get right first time which will be difficult to upscale




Note also that things such as conservation areas don't necessarily impact badly on getting paintball sites running.

the largest land owners / users in the uk is the MOD which has vast areas of conservation, historic, SSSI areas where they send out soldiers to play their games making more impact on the land then a few Paintballers - Their sheer presence had facilitated the protection and in many cases created the conditions for preservation.
I have played a few places that have special protected areas that are either playable anyway or fenced off to preserve
A well written application can actually use protected parts of land to support the case for the site because allowing paintball will make viable use of the land


There are a few old threads on the subject of setting up a site, have a search on 'planning permission' which will pick up many of them

 

[Tony Harrison]

Hi all
I am currently planning to set up a small site in the east midlands, having played (and Marshalled) at many levels for many years, but been stuck with this "Work" thing for the last few, I need to satisfy my itch, having just finished a reasonably well paid contract job, so have time and some funds to put into a new venture.

In speaking with a local land owner, he mentioned the *possible* need for planning permission for a site?

Can anyone shed any light on this?
It is a remote rural area, not in a conservation area or similar, not big, maybe 6-10 acres of mixed woodland.
It is intended to be a very minimal site to start with, IE no permanent structures, no hard-standing etc.

Any experience with this?

@Missy-Q would be a good person to advise you, as would Steve Bull.

Personally - and I don't want to rain on your parade - I would say this is a bad time to open a new site. A couple of site owners I know say their businesses are going through a very lean time at the moment.....

 

[Dusty]

If you're changing the purpose of the land you'll need planning permission. We had submitted diagrams of field layouts including massive trees which had been uprooted, planninf office asked what species the trees were.......

In short, if you want to open a commercial enterprise the likelihood is you'll need planning permission.

 

[ExpandedOldPaintballs]

Thanks all, i'll make some more inquiries, i'll also contact the council to see what they say.

I definitely need to do some market research to see if there is enough interest.
I intend for it to be a fairly small site, so wont need 120 people every weekend to make it pay.

 

[Missy-Q]

You'll need a 'change of use" for the land as it's zoned as Rural
Then you'll need planning, although this will be a part of the change of use permission.

If you don't have this, the nearest paintball field to the one you're setting up will shop you to the planning peops (as they should, seeing as they had to jump through the same hoops themselves.).

Without permanent structures it used to be OK to run a site 28 days out of the year with no planning permission (commonly called the '28 day rule'). I'm 20 years out of date with that information but it may still be the case. If you use this rule you will have to be honest about it. The likelihood is that your competitor will choose to prove you use the site more than that, and that you do in fact have structures on the land, etc. If he can prove it, you're in the weeds.

As you can tell, the whole thing is pretty much self-policing as fields will defend their 'manors'.
Friendly lot, your UK site operators...

 

[ExpandedOldPaintballs]

Thank you!

I have made contact with the council, so will see what they say about it - I certainly plan to use the site for more than 28 days PA so will probably have to go for it.

Might as well do it properly

I can understand the other sites (luckily there arent many) sticking their noses in - I would, its business.
I am a CAA certified commercial UAV (drone) pilot, we are always trying to shut down illegal operators (for the safety of the public mostly)
we have massive startup costs too so its the same thing really.

 

[Vorner23]

Probably teaching grandma to suck eggs here. But before you go too far down a route consider insurance costs for liability . Cost of insuring nutters running around woods with markers is likely to be astonishing.

Also the pros and cons of leasing the area with a fixed term .Protects you but also committs you .

 

[Vorner23]

Fyi those waivers we all sign don't count for s%&t legally.

 

[ExpandedOldPaintballs]

Actually paintball site specific insurance isn't THAT bad, £5m cover is around £1000 pa which is public & employers' liability.