Licensing of mobile home sites

If you have a mobile home or caravan site you may need a licence to make sure you have the right measures of safety and amenity standards.

We may amend these conditions to suit individual circumstances and we will need to carry out a site visit to check the facilities before issuing your licence.

Please contact Environmental Protection to request an application form.

If you have an enquiry about a licence complete our online form or contact us (see contacts section of this page).

If you have a mobile home site for holiday and touring or residential, you may need a licence under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960. 

You may not need a site licence for:

• incidental use on-land belonging to your home (e.g. a caravan kept on a domestic driveway for private use by the owners)
• single caravans for not more than two nights and 28 days in 12 months
• holdings of five acres or more if not more than 28 days in 12 months and maximum three caravans at any time
• sites occupied and supervised by exempted organisations (e.g. the Caravan Club)
• sites approved by exempted organisations for up to five caravans
• meetings organised by exempted organisations
• seasonal agriculture and forestry workers
• building and engineering sites
• travelling showmen
• sites occupied by a local authority
• gypsy sites occupied by county or regional councils

View a copy of the legislation detailing the exemptions in full.

Current licences

Copies of current site licensing can be found here.

Deposited Site Rules 

As a site owner, you will be expected to put in site rules to ensure standards are maintained to benefit your occupiers and to promote a sense of community on site.

The rules are different to your licence conditions and you will be expected to deposit these with us and are available here.

Site inspections

We use a risk rating inspection system that introduces a sliding scale of annual charges based on the risk/inspection frequency.  This means a site that is more problematic will pay a higher licence fee than one which requires little regulatory involvement from us. 

Timescales

We aim to process applications within two months.  There is no deemed approval of applications until a licence is granted. Depending on the status of the site’s planning permission a licence will be granted either permanently or for a fixed period.  If the licence is for a fixed period, the expiry date will be stated on the licence.

Renewal of licences

It is the applicant’s responsibility to apply and ensure that the necessary planning permission is in place before an application for renewal of a licence is submitted.

Appeals and complaints

If you have concerns about how your application is handled the first point of contact will be the case officer dealing with your application.  If you are still not satisfied, you can lodge a complaint with their line manager.  If you are dissatisfied with a condition attached to your licence you have the right of appeal to a magistrates court within 28 days. 

Other considerations

As a business and siteowner, we strongly recommend that you have taken account of these issues before applying for a licence (this list is not intended to be exhaustive or comprehensive):

• Disposal of waste – you have a legal duty to safely manage, store and dispose of any waste generated as a result of your business. 
• Fire safety – you’ll need to undertake and implement a fire safety risk assessment.  For more information on this you can contact the fire service. 
• Health and safety – you can obtain more information on the health and safety  of your staff and visitors to your site via the Health and Safety Executive website.

Contact us - Environmental Protection

01235 422403
(Text phone users add 18001 before dialing)

env.health@southandvale.gov.uk

South Oxfordshire District Council
Environmental Protection Team
135 Eastern Avenue
Milton Park
Milton
OX14 4SB