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Part 12 Class A: Local authority infrastructure
Class A has two routes. The first is for small ancillary buildings, works or equipment needed for specified functions on land belonging to or maintained by a local authority or urban development corporation. The second covers listed structures and similar works needed in connection with a public service that it administers.
It can include such familiar things as passenger shelters, seats, refuse bins and electric vehicle charging points with associated infrastructure. The precise route matters because the land and size wording for the first route must not automatically be applied to the second.
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Small ancillary works under A(a)
The authority or corporation may erect, construct, maintain, improve or alter a small ancillary building, works or equipment on land belonging to or maintained by it, where the work is required for a function it exercises on that land. The function must be exercised other than as a statutory undertaker.
For this limb, A.2 describes small ancillary works or equipment as not exceeding 4 metres in height or 200 cubic metres in capacity. The Order uses the word “or”. Read that statutory wording in the context of the actual proposal rather than rewriting it as a combined limit.
Public service structures under A(b)
The second limb lists lamp standards, information kiosks, passenger and public shelters, seats, telephone boxes, fire alarms, public drinking fountains, horse troughs, refuse bins or baskets, barriers to control queues for public service vehicles, electric vehicle charging points and associated infrastructure. It also includes similar structures or works required in connection with a public service administered by the authority or corporation.
A shelter installed by a contractor may be covered where it is genuinely carried out on behalf of the qualifying body and meets the A(b) test. The 2023 amendment expressly added that wording. A commercial shelter or charger does not qualify simply because a council is nearby.
Before relying on Class A
Check the land and function for A(a), or the public service link for A(b), along with any relevant Article 4 direction and earlier planning conditions. Class A does not generally authorise demolishing a building: article 3(9) sets a separate demolition restriction. Our fish pass guide considers a project where this right may be relevant if a qualifying authority carries out the works.
Read the current Class A wording, including A.1 and A.2. Part 12 Class A does not specify a prior approval procedure.
Explore GPDO Part 12
Page updated: 24th September 2026