Caravan and campsite licence

Caravan sites and park home licences and conditions

You need a caravan site licence for land where a caravan is used for living in. However, a caravan site licence can only be issued for land that has Planning Permission to be used as a caravan site.

You must apply for a licence if you want to site caravans for people to live in for more than 28 days. The person who owns or occupies the land must make the application.

Licences will not be issued to applicants who have had a site licence revoked within 3 years of the current application.

Caravan Site Licences apply to:

park home sites
gypsy or traveller caravan sites
touring caravan sites, for example holiday caravans.

You must have appropriate planning permission under Part III of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 or a certificate of lawful use (CLEUD) before you apply. Without planning permission, we cannot issue you a licence.

You are exempt from having to apply for a licence if:

forestry workers, builders, travelling showmen or seasonal worker stay in caravans on the site
the site is 5 or more acres and there are 3 or less caravans there for 28 days a year or less
you’re a member of a caravan club and have a caravan exemption certificate
your site is approved by an organisation with a caravan exemption certificate
members of an exempted organisation stay in their caravans on the site
your site is used for a caravan club members social get-together.

Licence Conditions

Licensing conditions are slightly different for residential sites, holiday sites and touring sites.

Site rules for licensed sites

The Mobile Homes Act 2013 requires operators of residential caravan sites and mobile home parks to deposit site rules with the local authority once they have been agreed with residents.

Whilst we are obliged to publish the site rules and maintain a register of them (by the Mobile Homes (Site Rules, England) Regulations 2013)) we cannot confirm that the content is acceptable and/or compliant.

We do not enforce these rules, however some rules may be the same as the site licence conditions. The site rules are part of the contract between the park home dweller and the site owner and support the Mobile Homes Act Agreement.

Register of Fit and Proper Persons

The Mobile Homes (Requirement for Manager of Site to be Fit and Proper Person) (England) Regulations 2020 require site owners to submit a formal application for inclusion onto a ‘Register of Fit and Proper Persons’ to the local authority.

This legislation applies to residential Mobile Homes sites operating on a commercial basis.  There are exemptions such as ‘Non-commercial, family-occupied sites’.

Anyone who currently holds a licence for a site, and applying for a new site licence, or the transfer of a site licence to a new owner, will need to apply for themselves and/or on behalf of an appointed site manager to be included on the register.

You can view a register of fit and proper site managers on our Public registers page.

Apply to be added to the register

Fit and proper person application form

Application to be included on the Register of Fit and Proper Persons under the Mobile Homes Regulations 2020

PDF, 74.2 KB

Apply for a caravan and campsite license

A site can’t be used to site tents for more than 42 consecutive days, or 60 days in any 12 months, without a licence.

You will probably need planning permission from the right authority – Somerset Council or Exmoor National Park.

Licence Conditions

These normally relate to the layout of the site and the provision of facilities such as sanitary accommodations. It is important that applications are supported by:

a layout plan showing the boundaries of the site
the proposed positions of tentage
car parking
fire fighting arrangements
sanitary facilities
refuse arrangements
water supplies
and access or egress arrangements.

If the plan is submitted as a paper copy, please use a scale of no less than 1/500.

The local authority may alter conditions at any time.

Apply for a caravan and campsite licence

Change an existing licence

To alter the details of an existing licence, please use this form instead: Application to change a caravan and camping site licence

Fees and Charges

Current fees and charges can be found on our Fees and charges page.

Keeping us informed

You should let the local authority know immediately of any changes which may affect the validity of the licence to change the licence accordingly, such as:

new planning consent which alter unit types
new planning consent which alter the number of units
material alterations to the site layout
new verandas
re-siting of vans.

Appeals

If you have been refused a licence, you may appeal to a local magistrate’s court.

You may appeal against a condition attached to a licence to a local magistrate’s court. The appeal must be made within 28 days of the licence being issued.

We may alter conditions at any time, but we must give the licence holders the opportunity to make representations about the proposed changes. If the licence holder disagrees with the alterations, they may appeal to the local magistrate’s court. The appeal must be made within 28 days of the written notification of the alteration and a notice of appeal must be served on us.