Caravan, Camping and Mobile Home Sites

The applicant must have the appropriate permissions to be entitled to use the land as a caravan site (for example planning permission).

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

You do not need a licence to run a caravan site if one or more of the following apply:

• forestry workers, builders, travelling showmen or seasonal workers (like fruit pickers) stay in caravans on the site
• the site is 5 or more acres and there is a maximum of 3 caravans on site for no more than 28 days per year
• the caravan is in the grounds of a home and you use it as part of the home
• a single caravan is located in the same place for no more than 2 consecutive nights for a maximum of 28 days in any 12-month period
• your site is occupied and supervised by an exempt organisation
• your site is approved by an exempt organisation
• your site is used by an exempt organisation for a meeting of its members which lasts less than 5 days
• your site is used for a social get-together of caravan club members (a ‘rally’).

We will charge for work connected with caravan site licensing for relevant protected sites. Fees will apply to granting licences, transferring licences, variation of site licence at holders request, and an annual fee. More details on the fees are contained in our licensing fee policy which is available to download from this page.

There is no fee if you are just applying for a tent only site licence.

Applications must be in writing, should detail the land the application concerns and any other information required by the local authority. You’ll need to give us a site layout to a scale of not less than 1:500 which shows:

• the boundaries of the site
• position of caravan standings
• roads and footpaths
• toilet blocks
• stores
• any other buildings
• foul and surface water drainage
• water supply
• recreation spaces
• fire points
• parking spaces (for both occupiers and visitors)

Before applying you’ll need a:

• land registry title deed for the site
• evidence of planning permission (if applicable)
• debit card

If the site has more than one land registry title deed you will need to provide each relevant copy.

A relevant protected site will have planning permission and a site licence that allows the site to be used for residential use all year round.

Apply to run a caravan site or campsite
Tell us about a change to your existing caravan or campsite

Please contact us to discuss your concerns in the first instance. You do have a right of appeal to the local magistrates’ court if your application is refused or you are unhappy with licence conditions proposed. The appeal must be made within 28 days of the date of decision or licence being issued.

If your complaint relates to a matter covered by licence conditions please contact us to advise of the issues. If you are unhappy with a site that you have stayed at, we would always advise that first contact is made with the trader by you. If that has not worked, if you are located in the UK, contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline.

A residential site can only have park rules if the rules have been deposited with us.

We will not accept any park rules which breach the Mobile Homes (Site Rules) (England) Regulations 2014.

Test Valley Borough Council is required to keep and publish a register of site rules. We will update this page when we are notified by site owners that rules are in force. You can view the site rules for Mobile Home Parks in Test Valley Borough on this page.

The site owner may set site rules on residential caravan sites. We do not enforce these rules, although some rules may be a duplicate of the site licence conditions.

If you are a site owner and wish to deposit site rules with us, there is a charge to do so. Please contact us for further information.

The rules that appear are written by the site owners and not Test Valley Borough Council.