60-day rule planner: Plan your pop-up campsite’s days.

Add the dates you’ll open. See how many of your 60 days (or 28) each year uses, and whether the tent licence limits come into it.

Dates you’ll open

First and last day of each run, including any days your toilets and facilities are on site.

Longest run 40 days in a row

More than 42 days in a row: a tent site needs a licence from the council.

Most in any 12 months 44 days

More than 60 days in 12 months: a tent site needs a licence from the council, even if each calendar year is within the limit.

Before you open each calendar year, write to your council with a site plan showing the toilets, the waste facilities and these exact dates. Up to 50 pitches, for tents, motorhomes and campervans, not touring caravans.

Before you open each calendar year, apply to your council to ask whether prior approval is needed, with a site plan and these exact dates. You can open if it says no approval is needed, or doesn’t reply within 28 days. Motorhomes are allowed, touring caravans aren’t.

Motorhomes count as caravans, so ask your council’s licensing team before you take motorhome bookings.

How it’s counted

  • Each date counts once, from the first day to the last day of each run. The planning limit is for each calendar year.
  • Some councils count every day your facilities are on site, even with nobody camping. Include setting up and taking down, or ask your council.
  • Give the council exact dates, and tell it if they change. The Lake District National Park Authority says changing dates without telling it makes the use unlawful.
  • The tent licence limits come from section 269 of the Public Health Act 1936. Some areas have older local Acts instead, so check with your council’s licensing team.

Where the rules don’t apply

  • Some land is excluded, such as SSSIs, scheduled monuments and the grounds of listed buildings. In England, land in Flood Zone 2 or 3 needs the council’s prior approval each year. In Wales, it’s excluded.
  • An Article 4 direction can switch the right off, as across the New Forest National Park.
  • Our guide to the 28-day and 60-day rules has all of it, with the sources.

Working out whether it’s worth it? Try our campsite income calculator.

Questions about the 60-day rule.

Anything else, get in touch and we’ll help.

In England, up to 60 days in a calendar year, with up to 50 pitches, under Class BC. In Wales, up to 60 days, or 28 in a National Park, National Landscape or World Heritage Site, under Class BA. Neither covers touring caravans.

They can. Folkestone and Hythe council counts every day your facilities are on site, even if nobody is camping. Ask your council, and leave room for setting up and taking down.

A tent site needs a council licence if it’s used for more than 42 days in a row, or more than 60 days in any 12 months. The planning limit runs by calendar year, but the licence limit runs over any 12 months, so an autumn and the next spring can cross it. Motorhomes count as caravans, so ask your council’s licensing team before taking them.

Yes. In England, write to the council before you open each calendar year, with a site plan showing toilets, waste facilities and your exact dates. In Wales, apply to ask whether prior approval is needed, and wait for its answer or 28 days.

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