While many people might imagine that bus shelters are the business of local councils and other local governments, there are many reasons a business or other private body might want to erect them. Whether it’s on private land to protect your staff at your own bus stops, on public land to protect staff at bus stops they regularly use, or if you’re a parish council looking to upgrade your local bus stops with shelters, there are plenty of different options for you. However, each of these applications raises different concerns with regard to planning permissions that you’ll need. Let’s take a look.

Bus shelters on private land

Whether it’s to service a public bus stop on your private land, or an internal bus route your company owns such as at an airport or large factory site, it can be a great idea to provide bus shelters for staff to keep them warm and dry in poor weather. However, careful considerations need to be taken with regards to planning permissions here too.

Unfortunately, shops, offices, bars and restaurants do not have permitted development rights, so any new structures such as bus shelters erected outside them require planning permission from the local authority. This also applies to industrial buildings such as warehouses and factories if the shelter is free standing away from the main building. We’d recommend getting in touch with the local planning and heritage departments as early as possible in your design scheme so that you can work with their input, as this will make the process much easier.

Bus shelters on public land

It almost goes without saying that planning permission is required in order to erect a bus stop on public land, such as a public road or highway, but are there any extra considerations you need to take into account? One of the trickiest parts of this process is working out who owns the land you’re looking to build on, if it’s a private landowner, the local authority or the Highways Agency, and the first thing you’ll need is landowner permission to build. Roads and their associated pavements tend to be owned by the Highways Agency, while verges tend to be owned by local authorities or private individuals, but if you’re not sure you can always check with HM Land Registry.

Once you have the permission of the landowner to build a bus shelter on their land, you’ll also need to go through the usual planning process by submitting a planning application. At this stage, depending on the proposed location of your shelter, you may have to submit various other documents, from conservation area assessments – if your shelter is in a conservation area – to street furniture applications if your shelter is on a public highway. You may even need to consult the local police if there is a concern regarding potential anti-social behaviour related to your shelter, or local residents if there are traffic concerns.

As a result, your best option is to consult your local planning department as early as you can within the process. It’s their job to know which permissions you’ll need and how to get them and can be a shortcut to the centre of what is a fairly baffling maze.