clearly ignorant of the way the law works with respect to private aviation,or has something to hide.
Spoken like a true expert, where (e)x is the unknown quantity and 'ert is a drip under pressure
The (planning) law is not specific to aviation. Aviators fit in to the general rules which govern extensions on your house, new builds etc.
Many people rely on the 28 day rule for a use which would otherwise require permission. In many cases the 28 days is stretched and with no one around to record the days use it is possible to get away with a great deal. The entire Certificate of Lawful Use procedure is based on the assumption that people will do things on their land for which they do not have permission! The Certificate allows for deemed permission where someone can establish 10 years use - in effect it legally rewards the land owner who has "got away" (if you like to view it as that) with his change of use without causing problems for anyone else.
Stik is quite right and I know he/she (
) speaks from personal experience. Once you approach the planners you stir up a hornets' nest. If you do it informally then they are confronted with what may be an unlawful user and it is difficult for them to do nothing. If you make a formal application then as Stik said, every local (and sometimes not so local) NIMBY come out of the closet and makes it their life's work to see that not only do you not get planning consent but what you do currently (legally) is stopped.
My local airfield has no planning consent; it has been operating since the 1960s; the county council have put up aircraft warning signs on the roads and the district council have just given building reg consent for the new clubhouse. We have resisted making an application for a Certificate of Lawful Use or planning consent because in the absence of an enforcement notice what we are doing is lawful (not illegal as goatface is suggesting) and an application would raise all sorts of unwelcomed discussions about how many days of the week we operate and what our movement numbers are or should be. We would rather not have to address that despite the fact that relations with the local village are very good indeed. The longer we continue to operate the stronger our position becomes.