Shepherds Hut showdown!

A few years ago we decided as a family that we would like a garden room for additional space either for the kids / guests or just somewhere different to sit and relax. We have stayed at a nearby campsite in a shepherds hut in the past that was roomy but cosy and so looked into the costings and whether you could order the hut to arrive flat packed. We found a company in the Netherlands that imported them and so took the plunge and ordered one that fitted in the space we had allocated at the bottom of the garden.

We had assumed that because of the size we could construct the hut under Permitted Development rights so when it arrived I enlisted the help of a carpenter friend of mine and a couple of mates to assemble the hut in time for my eldest daughter’s birthday in three weeks (no pressure then!).

When it was finally constructed (under time but over budget!) it looked a lot bigger than we had imagined from the brochure and were concerned about the height which for permitted development is limited to 1.5 m. As the shepherds hut was designed to be mobile it came with metal wheels (see photo) we would be able to remove the wheels to reduce the height if we had to. Unbeknown to us a neighbour who was concerned about being overlooked had already called the local planning department and within days we received a visit from their planning officer. They informed us that because of the height of the hut we would need to apply for retrospective planning consent and would first need to be authorized at parish council level and then local authority planning approval if required.



We didn’t want to take the wheels off (physically and metaphysically!) so decided to push ahead and apply for the consent. Much to our surprise the planning was refused at the Parish Council for being ‘ Unneighbourly ‘ (not a planning term I had come across!) so we proceeded with the Local Authority who came and re-inspected. The Planning Officer who visited commented on how attractive it looked and he had considered getting one for his garden! Needless to say planning was granted for the retrospective consent and peace was made with the neighbours. The kids are older now an don’t use it very often so we are thinking of turning it into a pub – do you think this may be considered unneighbourly!

Richard Payne

Senior Auction Appraiser and Auctioneer