Plans to install a caravan in a residential back garden have been thwarted.
Proposals, concerning 15 Sovereign Close in Hastings, involved setting up a unit for the applicant’s parents to live in.
This proposed unit, which included a living room, two bedrooms, a shower room, kitchen, utility room, and toilet, was to be placed in the garden of the two-storey detached house.
Drawings showing what the caravan would have looked like (Image: iHus)
The caravan, measuring 13.3m in width, 6.5m in depth, and 3.3m in height, was intended to offer a degree of independent living for the occupants.
The applicant argued that the caravan, being a mobile structure, did not require planning permission as it could be removed.
However, planning officers disagreed.
In a report, planning officers said: “While the structure may technically qualify as a caravan under the Caravan Sites Act 1968, that does not exempt it from planning control.”
They noted that a caravan or mobile home could be considered a ‘building’ under planning law if it is substantial in size, intended to stay for a significant period, and not easily moveable, despite being technically mobile.
The caravan would have been installed in the back garden (Image: Google)
Furthermore, the caravan was to be built on-site from numerous components.
This was deemed to fail the requirement for a caravan to be “composed of not more than two sections separately constructed and designed to be assembled on site”.
Planning officers added: “The scale and duration of works are more consistent with a single building operation than with the siting of a caravan.”
The proposed structure was also to rely on a system of fixed supports and integrated steelwork essential to its assembly and stability, making it physically and functionally attached to the ground.
A drawing showing the layout of the proposed caravan (Image: iHus)
Read more:
As a result, the officers concluded that the proposal would involve the erection of a building rather than merely the siting of a caravan.
The proposed unit was also slightly larger in width and more than half the depth of the main dwelling house, making it a significant structure within the garden of the house.
The plans were rejected by Hastings Borough Council on November 25. They can be viewed using the reference HS/PR/25/00644.
Comments are closed.