Do I Need Change Of Use For Wedding Venue?

[Barney2201]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

We are looking at taking on the lease of a small country estate, the primary use will be as a private residence, however we would also like to hold weddings at the venue. The estate has it's own church and a stunning parkland setting so ideal as a self contained wedding venue.

The question is would we need to apply for change of use planning? We only intend to hold a small amount of events per year (around 12) and all events would be private invitation only. No guests rooms would be let overnight.

I have already spoken to the local planning department however they will not accept questions over the phone, only in writing (which I have done), unfortunately their response time is up to 4 weeks by which time I will have lost the option on the property.

 

[ethical PR]

If you want to use a venue for people to get married rather than just to host the wedding you will need the local authority to approve the venue to carry out the marriage. Perhaps you could talk to the registrar's office if this is the case.

 

[Barney2201]

Thanks E PR

We should not have a problem with the marriage license as there is a church in the grounds of the estate.

What I am trying to find out is if we need change of use on the house to host private functions, or is there a certain amount of private functions per year we could hold before planning is required?

 

[JADEMEDIA]

Not sure if it is still the case but lets say a farmer with land could rent it out or hold boot fairs for up to 20 times a year.

Whatever the rule of law says however I would suggest that in your case it would be wise to cultivate the planning officers anyway - not only on present plans but future. You may indeed want to do B & B at some time.

Advice - advice and free advice too then and to give you an example. When my father looked at buying a wine bar that only had a wine licence he was told that a full on-licence had been refused no less than 5 times previously.

Without that however the wine bar wasn't viable and so he did a bit of research. The full on-licence had been refused on every occasion dues to objections from the police and fire brigade. Apparently they only needed to give the briefest of reasons in at the licensing hearing and boom the hammer went down - refused.

Not good enough for my father. He had a friend that was a senior police officer who made a quite open enquiry. Seems the refusal was on the grounds on not enough parking nearby. A tough one that required some thought but can't do is not in my fathers vocabulary. Next stop the fire prevention officer. Can you believe it the objection there was an archway to the rear emergency exit was 1 inch too narrow and that the curtains were not fire ret ardent.

Can you believe it. There were only two typical wine bar curtains about 6ft by 1 ft. Cost to replace £50 quid. The doorway £150. The full on-line alone without any increase in trade would hike the value up by at least £50,000.

With the fire officer agreeing that if the work was carried out they would withdraw any objection just left the police. The cost to resolve there even less. In fact a couple of quid the ink I used to produce 4 posters. The message on them.

"Don't Drink & Drive. If you can afford a beer or glass of wine you can afford a cab."

The police - the magistrates loved it when they visited the premises a few days before the hearing and on the day of the application it was simply nodded through.

The bottom line is that where any local authority department is involved and particularly on a venture like this get in first. Pander to the officers concerned professional ego and ask advice. Ask them what the options are. You might find they have suggestions themselves that could bring in even more business. They point is however you proceed they are not going to turn an application down based on their own advice. Make sure you treat them like VIP's then. They will appreciate that and will save months of any application going around the different departments as they will know that you have already received sound advice that would meet with universal approval.

And finally. You might want to consider inviting your MP to the gig. After all you will be providing some low skilled employment for locals and it will show just how serious you are at getting this project off the grown. Jade