GPDO Article 1 Wales – citation, commencement and interpretation

Jurisdiction: Wales
This page deals with Article 1 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 as it currently applies in Wales. England has a different GPDO and a different Article 1.

Definition or provision	What changed
Electronic communication	Added for Wales from 1st January 2005 alongside the new electronic communication rules in Article 1(7) to (12)
Building	Adjusted as new Parts were added, including Crown development in Part 38 in 2006 and Welsh microgeneration in Part 40 in 2009
Crown land and operational Crown land	The 2006 Crown land Order added Crown definitions and altered the meaning of “original” for Crown buildings
Solar PV and World Heritage Site	Added by the 2009 Welsh microgeneration amendment
Area of outstanding natural beauty	The institutional reference was updated in 2013 to the Natural Resources Body for Wales
Statutory undertaker	Changed more than once, including postal-service changes and the creation of the Natural Resources Body for Wales
Listed building and scheduled monument	Updated in 2024 so the definitions now refer to the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023
Site of archaeological interest	The former definition was removed in 2024 as part of the historic environment changes

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 and shall come into force on 3rd June 1995.

(2) In this Order, unless the context otherwise requires—

“the Act” means the Town and Country Planning Act 1990;

“the 1960 Act” means the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960;

“aerodrome” means an aerodrome as defined in article 106 of the Air Navigation Order 1989 (interpretation) which is—

(a) licensed under that Order,
(b) a Government aerodrome,
(c) one at which the manufacture, repair or maintenance of aircraft is carried out by a person carrying on business as a manufacturer or repairer of aircraft,
(d) one used by aircraft engaged in the public transport of passengers or cargo or in aerial work, or
(e) one identified to the Civil Aviation Authority before 1st March 1986 for inclusion in the UK Aerodrome Index,

and, for the purposes of this definition, the terms “aerial work”, “Government aerodrome” and “public transport” have the meanings given in article 106;

“aqueduct” does not include an underground conduit;

“area of outstanding natural beauty” means an area designated as such by an order made by the Countryside Commission, as respects England, or the Natural Resources Body for Wales, as respects Wales, under section 87 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 (designation of areas of outstanding natural beauty) as confirmed by the Secretary of State;

“building”—

(a) includes any structure or erection and, except in Parts 24, 25, 33 and 40, Class A of Part 31 and Class C of Part 38, of Schedule 2, includes any part of a building, as defined in this article; and
(b) does not include plant or machinery and, in Schedule 2, except in Class B of Part 31 and Part 33, does not include any gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure;

“caravan” has the same meaning as for the purposes of Part I of the 1960 Act (caravan sites);

“caravan site” means land on which a caravan is stationed for the purpose of human habitation and land which is used in conjunction with land on which a caravan is so stationed;

“classified road” means a highway or proposed highway which—

(a) is a classified road or a principal road by virtue of section 12(1) of the Highways Act 1980 (general provision as to principal and classified roads); or
(b) is classified by the Secretary of State for the purposes of any enactment by virtue of section 12(3) of that Act;

“Crown land” has the meaning given by section 293 of the Act;

“cubic content” means the cubic content of a structure or building measured externally;

“dwellinghouse” does not include a building containing one or more flats, or a flat contained within such a building;

“electronic communication” has the meaning given in section 15(1) of the Electronic Communications Act 2000;

“erection”, in relation to buildings as defined in this article, includes extension, alteration, or re-erection;

“existing”, in relation to any building or any plant or machinery or any use, means (except in the definition of “original”) existing immediately before the carrying out, in relation to that building, plant, machinery or use, of development described in this Order;

“flat” means a separate and self-contained set of premises constructed or adapted for use for the purpose of a dwelling and forming part of a building from some other part of which it is divided horizontally;

“floor space” means the total floor space in a building or buildings;

“industrial process” means a process for or incidental to any of the following purposes—

(a) the making of any article or part of any article (including a ship or vessel, or a film, video or sound recording);
(b) the altering, repairing, maintaining, ornamenting, finishing, cleaning, washing, packing, canning, adapting for sale, breaking up or demolition of any article; or
(c) the getting, dressing or treatment of minerals in the course of any trade or business other than agriculture, and other than a process carried out on land used as a mine or adjacent to and occupied together with a mine;

“land drainage” has the same meaning as in section 116 of the Land Drainage Act 1976 (interpretation);

“listed building” has the meaning given by section 76 of the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023;

“by local advertisement” means by publication of the notice in at least one newspaper circulating in the locality in which the area or, as the case may be, the whole or relevant part of the conservation area to which the direction relates is situated;

“machinery” includes any structure or erection in the nature of machinery;

“microwave” means that part of the radio spectrum above 1,000 MHz;

“microwave antenna” means a satellite antenna or a terrestrial microwave antenna;

“mine” means any site on which mining operations are carried out;

“mining operations” means the winning and working of minerals in, on or under land, whether by surface or underground working;

“notifiable pipe-line” means a pipe-line, as defined in section 65 of the Pipe-lines Act 1962 (meaning of pipe-line), which contains or is intended to contain a hazardous substance, as defined in regulation 2(1) of the Notification Regulations (interpretation), except—

(a) a pipe-line the construction of which has been authorised under section 1 of the Pipe-lines Act 1962 (cross-country pipe-lines not to be constructed without the Minister’s authority); or
(b) a pipe-line which contains or is intended to contain no hazardous substance other than—

(i) a flammable gas (as specified in item 1 of Part II of Schedule 1 to the Notification Regulations (classes of hazardous substances not specifically named in Part I)) at a pressure of less than 8 bars absolute; or
(ii) a liquid or mixture of liquids, as specified in item 4 of Part II of that Schedule;

“Notification Regulations” means the Notification of Installations Handling Hazardous Substances Regulations 1982;

“operational Crown building” means a building which is operational Crown land;

“operational Crown land” means—

(a) Crown land which is used for operational purposes; and
(b) Crown land which is held for those purposes,

but does not include—

(i) land which, in respect of its nature and situation, is comparable rather with land in general than with land which is used, or held, for operational purposes;
(ii) Crown land—

(aa) belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Crown and forming part of the Crown Estate;
(bb) in which there is an interest belonging to Her Majesty in right of Her private estates;
(cc) in which there is an interest belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Duchy of Lancaster; or
(dd) belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall;

“operational purposes” means the purposes of carrying on the functions of the Crown or of either House of Parliament;

“original” means—

(a) in relation to a building, other than a building which is Crown land, existing on 1st July 1948, as existing on that date and, in relation to a building, other than a building which is Crown land, built on or after 1st July 1948, as so built;
(b) in relation to a building which is Crown land on 7th June 2006, as existing on that date and, in relation to a building built on or after 7th June 2006 which is Crown land on the date of its completion, as so built;

“plant” includes any structure or erection in the nature of plant;

“private way” means a highway not maintainable at the public expense and any other way other than a highway;

“proposed highway” has the same meaning as in section 329 of the Highways Act 1980 (further provision as to interpretation);

“public service vehicle” means a public service vehicle within the meaning of section 1 of the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 (definition of public service vehicles) or a tramcar or trolley vehicle within the meaning of section 192(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (general interpretation);

“satellite antenna” means apparatus designed for transmitting microwave radio energy to satellites or receiving it from them, and includes any mountings or brackets attached to such apparatus;

“scheduled monument” has the meaning given by section 3(7) of the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023;

“by site display” means by the posting of the notice by firm affixture to some object, sited and displayed in such a way as to be easily visible and legible by members of the public;

“site of archaeological interest” [definition omitted in Wales from 4th November 2024];

“site of special scientific interest” means land to which section 28(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (areas of special scientific interest) applies;

“solar PV” means solar photovoltaics;

“statutory undertaker” includes, in addition to any person mentioned in section 262(1) of the Act (meaning of statutory undertakers), a universal service provider (within the meaning of Part 3 of the Postal Services Act 2011) in connection with the provision of a universal postal service (within the meaning of that Part), the Civil Aviation Authority, the Environment Agency, the Natural Resources Body for Wales, any water undertaker, any public gas transporter, and any licence holder within the meaning of section 64(1) of the Electricity Act 1989 (interpretation etc. of Part 1);

“terrestrial microwave antenna” means apparatus designed for transmitting or receiving terrestrial microwave radio energy between two fixed points;

“trunk road” means a highway or proposed highway which is a trunk road by virtue of section 10(1) or 19 of the Highways Act 1980 (general provisions as to trunk roads, and certain special roads and other highways to become trunk roads) or any other enactment or any instrument made under any enactment;

“the Use Classes Order” means the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987; and

“World Heritage Site” means a property appearing on the World Heritage List kept under article 11(2) of the 1972 UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

(3) Unless the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Order to the height of a building or of plant or machinery shall be construed as a reference to its height when measured from ground level; and for the purposes of this paragraph “ground level” means the level of the surface of the ground immediately adjacent to the building or plant or machinery in question or, where the level of the surface of the ground on which it is situated or is to be situated is not uniform, the level of the highest part of the surface of the ground adjacent to it.

(4) [revoked]

(5) The land referred to elsewhere in this Order as article 1(5) land is the land described in Part 2 of Schedule 1 to this Order (National Parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty and conservation areas etc.).

(6) The land referred to elsewhere in this Order as article 1(6) land is the land described in Part 3 of Schedule 1 to this Order (National Parks and adjoining land and the Broads).

(7) Paragraphs (8) to (12) apply where an electronic communication is used by a person for the purpose of fulfilling any requirement in this Order or in any Schedule to this Order to give or send any statement, notice or other document to any other person (“the recipient”).

(8) The requirement shall be taken to be fulfilled where the notice or other document transmitted by means of the electronic communication is—

(a) capable of being accessed by the recipient,
(b) legible in all material respects, and
(c) sufficiently permanent to be used for subsequent reference.

(9) In paragraph (8), “legible in all material respects” means that the information contained in the notice or document is available to the recipient to no lesser extent than it would be if sent or given by means of a document in printed form.

(10) Where the electronic communication is received by the recipient outside the recipient’s business hours, it shall be taken to have been received on the next working day; and for this purpose “working day” means a day which is not a Saturday, Sunday, Bank Holiday or other public holiday.

(11) A requirement in this Order or in any Schedule to this Order that any document should be in writing is fulfilled where that document meets the criteria in paragraph (8), and “written” and cognate expressions are to be construed accordingly.

(12) References in this Order or in any Schedule to this Order to plans, drawings, notices or other documents, or to copies of such documents, include references to such documents or copies of them in electronic form.

(13) For the purposes of this Order, development carried out by or on behalf of any person in whom control of accommodation in any part of the Palace of Westminster or its precincts is vested shall be treated (so far as it would not otherwise be treated) as development by or on behalf of the Crown.