Applications, appeals, permitted development, enforcement and planning strategy across England
Planning explanations, updates and practical guidance in video form
Class C: Tramway or road transport undertakings
Class C of Part 9 covers tramway permitted development and specified road transport development carried out by transport undertakers. It covers a defined list of infrastructure as well as some development on operational land, but the wider operational-land limb has important exclusions.
Need help with permitted development?
Permitted development can avoid a full planning application, but only if the right applies and every relevant limit and condition is met. Planning Geek can check the planning history, Article 4 directions and other restrictions, and help with a lawful development certificate or prior approval where needed.
Who can use Class C?
The current wording is important. Since the 2018 amendment, Class C expressly applies to development by transport undertakers required for the purposes of carrying on a tramway or road transport undertaking. It is not a general permission for anybody installing transport-related equipment.
The 2018 change was described as a clarification, and the GPDO now includes the relevant definition of a transport undertaker in article 2.
What does tramway permitted development cover?
Class C lists five groups of development:
- Posts, overhead wires, underground cables, feeder pillars and transformer boxes in, on, over or adjacent to a highway for supplying current to public service vehicles
- Tramway tracks and the conduits, drains and pipes connected with those tracks
- Telephone cables and apparatus, huts, stop posts and signs required in connection with public service vehicles
- Passenger shelters and barriers for controlling people waiting to enter public service vehicles, including their maintenance, improvement or alteration
- Other development on the operational land of the undertaking, subject to the exclusions below
What is not permitted?
The right is not unlimited. The main restrictions are:
- A structure installed under the electrical-infrastructure limb cannot exceed 17 cubic metres in capacity
- The operational-land limb cannot be used to erect a building, or to reconstruct or alter a building where its design or external appearance would be materially affected
- Additional or replacement plant or machinery under the operational-land limb cannot exceed 15 metres in height, or the height of the plant or machinery it replaces, whichever is greater
- Certain development carried out under powers in specified transport legislation is excluded where it is not wholly within a bus or tramway station
The last restriction is technical and should be checked against the statutory wording where the scheme relies on powers in the Transport Act 1962 or Transport Act 1968.
Passenger shelters and bus infrastructure
Passenger shelters and waiting barriers are expressly within Class C, but the class still has to be read as a whole. The developer must be a transport undertaker and the development must be required for carrying on the relevant tramway or road transport undertaking.
This distinction can matter where a shelter, sign or other item is proposed by a local authority, landowner or commercial operator acting in a different capacity. A transport-related purpose does not automatically make Class C available.
Current Class C legislation
Explore Part 9
Page Created: 11th August 2023
Page Updated: 23rd September 2026