[This page concentrates on the legal and planning permission aspects of bike sheds in gardens, particularly front gardens. See also our page on bike storage for tenement and flat dwellers, which includes some information on suppliers of sheds/containers and our page about onstreet secure bike storage].
IMPORTANT CURRENT INFORMATION
Do you need planning permission for a garden shed? Government flowchart [pdf]
Spokes Factsheet: Cycle Storage in Gardens [pdf 167k].
Status of Factsheet: The factsheet went to the Council’s Planning Committee, where councillors approved this report to 3.10.13 Council Planning Committee [pdf 1MB]. The report states…
“The advice provided in the factsheet is considered appropriate. The factsheet will..
- Provide greater clarity and certainty for householders by clearly specifying guidelines for the form of cycle storage that will normally be considered acceptable
- Reduce the number of unsuccessful applications and potential enforcement cases
- Provide a subsequent reduction in costs through application fees.
- The factsheet will be supported by inclusion on the Council’s cycling related web pages and mention in the Householder Guidance.”
The Council’s document Guidance for Householders which is on their Planning Guidelines webpage now includes a link to our factsheet [see page 15 of the Guidance].
DIARY OF DEVELOPMENTS
Independent Review of Planning (2016) and subsequent developments re planning permission for sheds/containers in front gardens:
- 1801 Letter to Chief Planner & others expressing frustration [pdf]
- 1708 Govt Places, People & Planning – Position Statement consultation [link] Spokes response Heads of Planning Scotland [HOPS] paper to which we refer.
- 1702 Govt planning fees consultation [link]. Spokes response [pdf] re garden sheds/ containers for bike storage.
- 1608 Spokes email [pdf] supporting early action, to govt and the Heads of Planning organisation
- 1607 Govt response to review [link] – includes priority ‘key action’ to “work with Heads of Planning Scotland to identify how permitted development rights could be extended (Recommendation 31).”
- 1605 Report of review [link] – see para 6.12 and Recommendation 31
- 1512 Spokes submission on Garden Sheds [pdf]
1706 CEC Guidance for Householders revision consultation – see para 1706 on our local policy submissions page.
1310 03 Spokes factsheet ‘considered appropriate‘ by Planning Committee and will be mentioned in the Council’s guidance to householders on planning issues. See news item for more background.
1305 16 Edinburgh Council Planning Committee has approved a motion by Cllr Nigel Bagshaw, seconded by Cllr Sandy Howat, instructing officers to investigate Spokes proposals on garden bike storage. Spokes has prepared a draft factsheet [Oct 2013 update – the finalised version is now above] to improve clarity for householders, reduce the likelihood of abortive applications or enforcement notices to remove sheds, and reduce costs. Also a paper on steps the Council could take to make garden storage easier [doc 20k].
Our initiative was prompted by several very unfortunate cases where people wishing to use bikes to get around the city had great difficulty in getting permission to install a garden shed/container, and/or were served with an enforcement notice to remove an existing storage unit. See our original story [26.9.12] and some of the eventual outcomes [19.12.12] following great efforts by the householders, local councillors and Spokes.
OUTSIDE EDINBURGH
1301 Ealing Cycling Campaign has published a tremendous paper Secure Cycle Storage in Residential Front Gardens [pdf 1.2MB] highlighting exactly the same issues, and the steps already being taken and discussed by the London Borough Councils of Ealing and Wandsworth to address these problems. Of course, the document is based on English law, albeit that there are close parallels with Scottish in this context.
