Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government are encouraging local planning authorities to be flexible regarding Temporary Changes of Use.
Hot Food Provision
There is a change in the planning law which has come into force to allow for restaurants / bars to become takeaways for 1 year.This will be the case for many business in the Harrogate region as they look to survive the coming year.
This planning does not need to be obtained but must be done via a prior notification process so each business that is looking become a takeaway needs to write to council to tell them they are proposing to do this so there avoid later enforcement.
The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) Order 2020 (SI 2020 No.330), came into effect at 10.00 a.m. yesterday (24 March 2020).
The amendment order introduces a new PD right in Part 4 of the Second Schedule to the GPDO 2015. This is Class DA.
This applies to restaurants and cafes (A3), and drinking establishments (A4), mixed A4/A3 uses and also to drinking establishments with expanded food provision, to enable them temporarily provide takeaway food.
This one-year PD right, ending with 23 March 2021, is subject to the condition that the developer must notify the LPA if the building and any land within its curtilage is being used, or will be used, for the provision of takeaway food. The use of the building and any land within its curtilage must revert to its previous lawful use at the end of the relevant period or, if earlier, when the developer ceases to provide takeaway food under Class DA.
This does not affect the use class which the premises, and any land within its curtilage, had before the change of use under the new Class DA.
For the purposes of Class DA, the “provision of takeaway food” includes any use for any purpose within Use Class A5, and any use for the provision of hot or cold food that has been prepared for consumers for collection or delivery to be consumed, reheated or cooked by consumers off the premises.
Other changes of use that the Government may be looking to introduce are temporary permitted development rights for using hotels to increase hospital capacity, and for other buildings to be used as temporary mortuaries. Again secondary legislation would be required, but in the meantime it is intended that no planning enforcement action be taken if these changes occur in advance of the introduction of the PD right.
See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/330/made
