(1) This order may be cited as the Town and Country Planning General Development Order 1988 and shall come into force on 5th December 1988.
(2) In this order, unless the context otherwise requires—
“ the Act ” means the Town and Country Planning Act 1971;
“the 1981 Act ” means the Town and Country Planning (Minerals) Act 1981 ;
“the 1960 Act ” means the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 ;
“aerodrome” means an aerodrome as defined in article 96 of the Air Navigation Order 1985 which is—
licensed under that order,
a Government aerodrome,
one at which the manufacture, repair or maintenance of aircraft is carried out by a person carrying on business as a manufacturer or repairer of aircraft,
one used by aircraft engaged in the public transport of passengers or cargo or aerial work, or
one identified to the Civil Aviation Authority before 1st March 1986 for inclusion in the UK Aerodrome Index,
and for the purposes of this definition, the terms “aerial work”, “Government aerodrome” and “public transport” have the meanings given in article 96;
“aqueduct” does not include an underground conduit;
“area of outstanding natural beauty” means an area designated as such by an order made by the Countryside Commission under section 87 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 as confirmed by the Secretary of State;
“associated apparatus”, in relation to any sewer, main or pipe, means pumps, machinery or apparatus associated with the relevant sewer, main or pipe;
“building” does not include plant or machinery, and in Schedule 2 to this order does not include any gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure;
“caravan” has the same meaning as for the purposes of Part I of the 1960 Act;
“caravan site” means land on which a caravan is stationed for the purpose of human habitation and land which is used in conjunction with land on which a caravan is so stationed;
“classified road” means a highway or proposed highway which—
is a classified road or a principal road by virtue of section 12(1) of the Highways Act 1980 ; or
is classified for the purposes of any enactment by the Secretary of State by virtue of section 12(3) of that Act;
“the Common Council ” means the Common Council of the City of London;
“contravention of previous planning control” means a use of land begun in contravention of Part III of the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 or Part III of the Town and Country Planning Act 1962 ;
“cubic content” means the cubic content of a structure or building measured externally;
“dwellinghouse” does not include a building containing one or more flats, or a flat contained within such a building;
“existing”, in relation to any building or any plant or machinery, means (except in the definition of “original”) existing immediately before the carrying out of development described in this order;
“flat” means a separate and self-contained set of premises constructed for use for the purpose of a dwelling and forming part of a building from some other part of which it is divided horizontally;
“floor space” means the total floor space in a building or buildings;
“hazardous substance” and “notifiable quantity” have the meanings assigned to those terms by the Notification Regulations ;
“industrial process” means a process for or incidental to any of the following purposes—
the making of any article or part of any article (including a ship or vessel, or a film, video or sound recording);
the altering, repairing, maintaining, ornamenting, finishing, cleaning, washing, packing, canning, adapting for sale, breaking up or demolition of any article; or
the getting, dressing or treatment of minerals in the course of any trade or business other than agriculture, and other than a process carried out on land used as a mine or adjacent to and occupied together with a mine;
“land drainage” has the meaning it has in the Land Drainage Act 1976 ;
“landscaping” means the treatment of land (other than buildings) being the site or part of the site in respect of which an outline planning permission is granted, for the purpose of enhancing or protecting the amenities of the site and the area in which it is situated and includes screening by fences, walls or other means, the planting of trees, hedges, shrubs or grass, the formation of banks, terraces or other earthworks, the laying out of gardens or courts, and the provision of other amenity features;
“local authority” includes a parish or community council;
“microwave” means that part of the radio spectrum above 1000 MHz ;
“microwave antenna” means a satellite antenna or a terrestrial microwave antenna;
“mine” means any site on which mining operations are carried out;
“mining operations” means the winning and working of minerals in, on or under land, whether by surface or underground working;
“notifiable pipeline” means a pipeline (as that term is defined in section 65 of the Pipelines Act 1962 ) which contains or is intended to contain a hazardous substance, but does not include a pipeline which has been authorised under section 1 of the Pipelines Act 1962, or a pipeline which contains, or is intended to contain, no hazardous substance other than—
a flammable gas (as specified in item 1 of Part II of Schedule 1 to the Notification Regulations) at a pressure of less than 8 bars absolute; or
a flammable liquid, as specified in item 4 of Part II of the said Schedule;
“Notification Regulations” means the Notification of Installations Handling Hazardous Substances Regulations 1982 ;
“original” means, in relation to a building existing on 1st July 1948, as existing on that date and, in relation to a building built on or after 1st July 1948, as so built;
“outline planning permission” means a planning permission for the erection of a building, which is granted subject to a condition requiring the subsequent approval of the local planning authority with respect to one or more reserved matters;
“plant or machinery” includes any structure or erection in the nature of plant or machinery;
“private way” means a highway not maintainable at the public expense and any other way other than a highway;
“proposed highway” has the meaning assigned to that term by section 329 of the Highways Act 1980;
“public service vehicle” means a public service vehicle or tramcar within the meaning of the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 or a trolley vehicle within the meaning of section 196(1) of the Road Transport Act 1972 ;
“ 1988 Regulations ” means the Town and Country Planning (Applications) Regulations 1988 ;
“reserved matters” in relation to an outline permission, or an application for such permission, means any of the following matters in respect of which details have not been given in the application, namely—
siting,
design,
external appearance,
means of access,
the landscaping of the site;
“satellite antenna” means apparatus designed for transmitting microwave radio energy to satellites or receiving it from them, and includes any mountings or brackets attached to such apparatus;
“site of archaeological interest” means land which is included in the schedule of monuments compiled by the Secretary of State under section 1 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 , or is within an area of land which is designated as an area of archaeological importance under section 33 of that Act, or which is within a site registered in any record kept by a county council and known as the County Sites and Monuments Record;
“site of special scientific interest” means land to which section 28(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 applies;
“sludge main” means a pipe or system of pipes (together with any pumps or other machinery or apparatus associated therewith) for the conveyance of the residue of water or sewage treated in a water or sewage treatment works as the case may be, including final effluent or the products of the dewatering or incineration of such residue, or partly for any of those purposes and partly for the conveyance of trade effluent or the residue thereof;
“slurry” means animal faeces and urine (whether or not water has been added for handling);
“special road” means a highway or proposed highway which is a special road in accordance with section 16 of the Highways Act 1980;
“statutory undertaker” includes, in addition to any person mentioned in section 290(1) of the Act, the Post Office and the Civil Aviation Authority and public gas suppliers within the meaning of section 7 of the Gas Act 1986 ;
“terrace house” means a dwellinghouse situated in a row of three or more dwellinghouses used or designed for use as single dwellings, where—
it shares a party wall with, or has a main wall adjoining the main wall of, the dwellinghouse on either side; or
if it is at the end of a row, it shares a party wall with or has a main wall adjoining the main wall of a dwellinghouse which fulfils the requirements of (a) above;
“terrestrial microwave antenna” means apparatus designed for transmitting or receiving terrestrial microwave radio energy between two fixed points;
“transport legislation” means section 14(1)(d) of the Transport Act 1962 or section 10(1)(x) of the Transport Act 1968 ;
“trunk road” means a highway or proposed highway which is a trunk road by virtue of sections 10(1) or 19 of the Highways Act 1980 or any other enactment or any instrument made under any enactment;
“unadopted street” means a street as defined by the Public Health Act 1936 not being a highway maintainable at the public expense;
“urban development corporation” has the same meaning as in Part XVI of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 ;
“the Use Classes Order ” means the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 ;
“warehouse” means a building used for any purpose within Class B8 (storage or distribution) of the Schedule to the Use Classes Order.
(3) Unless the context otherwise requires, any reference in this order to the height of a building or of plant or machinery shall be construed as a reference to its height when measured from ground level; and for the purposes of this paragraph “ground level” means the level of the surface of the ground immediately adjacent to the building or plant or machinery in question or, where the level of the surface of the ground on which it is situated or is to be situated is not uniform, the level of the highest part of the surface of the ground adjacent to it.
(4) References to the use of land for a specified purpose do not include references to the use of land—
(a) without planning permission, or
(b) in contravention of previous planning control.
(5) The land referred to elsewhere in this order as article 1(5) land is the land described in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to this order (National Parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty and conservation areas etc. )
(6) The land referred to elsewhere in this order as article 1(6) land is the land described in Part 2 of Schedule 1 to this order (National Parks and adjoining land).