Planning Officer Site Visits: 3 Things Farmers Should Never Say

A planning officer's site visit is often the only time the person handling your application stands on your land and hears your case in your own words. Most farmers treat it as a friendly chat over the gate. It is not. What you say can find its way into the officer's report, and one careless sentence can hand the council the reason for refusal it was looking for. I sat with a farmer last week going through what he planned to tell the officer on site, and almost every line he had prepared would have weakened his application without him realising. Three phrases come up again and again across the farming industry, and each one does real damage.

"I Don't Really Need It, I Just Thought It Might Be Useful"

For a new agricultural building under Class A of Part 6 of the General Permitted Development Order, the building must be reasonably necessary for the purposes of agriculture within that unit. Prior approval focuses on siting, design and external appearance, but the council is entitled to ask whether the proposal is permitted development in the first place, and reasonable necessity is the gateway to that. Tell the officer you do not really need the building and you have answered that question for them, against yourself. The same applies to a full planning application for an agricultural building, where the council will look closely at whether the size and design of the building match the genuine needs of the business.

Describe the building in terms of what the farm does: the stock it will house, the machinery and feed it will protect, the tonnage of crop it will store, and what happens to the business without it. Agricultural need is a matter of evidence, not opinion, and the officer should leave the site with that evidence fixed in their mind.

"My Neighbour Got One, So It Should Be Fine"

Every planning application is decided on its own merits. Consistency in decision making does matter, and a council should not treat genuinely like cases differently without good reason. But a neighbour's approval only helps you if the two cases really are comparable: the same policy context, a similar holding, a similar agricultural justification and a similar landscape setting. Next door may have been approved under an older version of the NPPF or the local plan, outside a designation that affects your land, or on the back of a far stronger agricultural case.

Leading with your neighbour tells the officer you are relying on someone else's case rather than your own. If a nearby approval genuinely supports your proposal, it belongs in the planning statement with its reference number and a clear explanation of why it is comparable. On site, keep the conversation about your farm.

"The Last Planning Officer Said It Was Fine"

Different officer, different day, and sometimes a different reading of the same policy. Verbal comments from a previous visit, a phone call or a conversation at a show carry no weight in the decision. Officers move on, cases are reallocated, policies are updated and the final decision may be taken by a senior officer or a planning committee. Even written pre application advice does not bind the council, although it is a material consideration and is far more useful than a remembered conversation.

Repeating what someone else supposedly said puts the new officer on the defensive and makes you look unprepared rather than informed. If you have written advice, include it with the application. If you only have a recollection, leave it out.

How Farmers Should Prepare for a Planning Site Visit

Viewers of Clarkson's Farm watched Jeremy Clarkson's plans run into West Oxfordshire District Council's planning committee. Good intentions and public goodwill did not carry the day, because a committee is weighing evidence against policy, not listening for reassurance. At the other end of the scale, Jimmy Doherty built Jimmy's Farm in Suffolk into a thriving diversified business by thinking creatively about what his land could do. The lesson from both is the same: a bold idea needs a clear planning case behind it.

The farmers who get this right walk into a site visit with a John Deere in the yard and a clear functional case in their head, not a hope that the officer will be sympathetic. Before the visit, know your holding size, stock numbers, machinery, storage requirements and the reasons for the chosen site and size of building. Be ready to explain in one or two sentences why the farm needs the development now. Stick to the facts in the application, do not speculate about future uses, and do not volunteer opinions about other people's applications. Prepare your answers the way you would prepare for cross examination, not a chat over a gate.

Farming in the West Midlands? Find out how we help farmers with farm planning in the West Midlands, including Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.

Read next: our guide to choosing the right planning route, plus New NPPF 2026: What the Planning Minister's Letter Means for Your Farm and NPPF 2026 Update: What the New Planning Rules Mean for Farmers.

How Foxes Rural Can Help

A site visit can strengthen an application or quietly undermine it, and the difference usually comes down to preparation. Foxes Rural works alongside farm businesses across the UK to build agricultural cases that stand up to scrutiny, from prior approval notifications under Part 6 to full planning applications, drawing on a practical understanding of what local planning authorities expect to see. If you have a site visit coming up and want to make sure your case is ready, call us on 01206 481981 or get in touch through our Contact page.