chris

Hi all,

Has anyone out there ever had a problem with the council demanding the club
pays rates
on the field it is using for flying? The field we use is owned by the farmer
to which he charges
us a fee each year to use, but not solely, we share it with cows and sheep.
Apparantly farmers
are exempt from paying rates on agricultural/faming land

Any thoughts or dealings with your council would be very much appreciated.

Thanks alot

Chris

dn

This an interesting case Chris.

Are you quite sure the farmer owns the land and not leasing it from a local
Authority?

As the owner of the land, the owner can choose how the land is used, except
for legal covenants, environmental laws, ea*****ts through the land, noise
abatement notices and such like. If you are not caught up in this stuff, I
see no reason why you should pay rates.

All this alters if the land is leased from your local Council because the
*use* of the land has changed. Consult with your local Councillor first
before tackling the Council..

DN

richard crapp

The BMFA have a specialist for this sort of thing, as long as your club
belongs you can ask them.

Do you have planing permission for change of use? if not the number of
days a year it can be used for flying are limited. But it is still
agricultural.

Do you have a building? Or just a shed for the mower?

But as I said, ask the BMFA. I think they have a booklet.

--
Richard Crapp

the natural philosopher

Ah, but if, say, permission to build a factory were granted, then the
council has the rights to charge business rates.

The issue being that roads etc and also waste disposal will be impacted
by the change of use.

Interesting case.

handy andy

Farming land can attract rates (sporting rates) for such things as gundog
based events . shooting , etc. They might be putting out a 'feeler' to see
if any monies . if any , changes hands?? Take it from there. Could
attract up to £7:00 per acre per annum!!!

chris

Richard,

We have recently had to apply for a change of use to the field to
include the flying, and with that we have had restrictions placed
on us which include noise (82b @7m) and time for IC Flying
only (Mon-Fri 12pm - 9pm, Sat/Sun 10am - 6pm). As far as
buildings go we don't have any, only the car park part of the field
has been fenced off, which is big enough for approximately 15 cars.
There is a track that leads from the main road through one field and
into the car park, this is maintained by ourselves/the farmer, but it is
a track not a road. I believe it is used by the farmer to access the
fields when gathering his cattle together etc.

Our club is a member of the SAA which is affiliated to the BMFA,
I will be attending a committee meeting tonight with some info that I
have managed together since posting this, could be an interesting one,
lets just hope we can manage to get a satisfactory conclusion, and get
on with the flying.

Knd regards

Chris

david wolper

A change of use for the land can be deemed to have taken place if the
activity has been carried on for more than 28 days in any one year.
Therefore Agricultural land stays agricultural as long as you don't fly more
than 28 days per year. It's a bit more involved than that but not much. Of
course if you have an arsy local authority and they own the land then I
guess they just wait for an excuse. They are really just jealous because
they can't do what we do!!!!

Sunday flying days in our club are split between two fields therefore only
28 days per year. I have not heard about being charged rates before. Once
again an arsy local authority. Contact the BMFA they are pretty good at
dealing with this. Certainly they have much experience.

David.

chris

Hi all,

Thanks very much for your replies, we received a call from the council
on friday to inform us that they will not be persuing rates from either
ourselves or the farmer as they are happy that we don't have exclusive
use of the field and in fact we share it with the cattle and sheep, so they
still see it as agricultural land.

So all's well that ends well.

Kind regards

Chris