Commercial Occupiers
Sector guides for restaurants, gyms, nurseries, places of worship, shops, offices and logistics.
Latest in Commercial Occupiers
137 articlesHours of opening conditions and how to negotiate them
An hours condition is easier to shape before it is imposed than to vary afterwards. Here is the evidence that supports longer hours, how to split customer and delivery restrictions, and what varying an existing condition involves.
Planning a pharmacy alongside a medical practice
Retail and health services both sit inside Class E, so a pharmacy opening in a shop unit or alongside a surgery usually needs no change of use permission. The consents that do bite are parking, hours, extraction and signage.
Change of use to a light industrial unit near homes
Light industry sits inside Class E only where the process could be carried out in a residential area without detriment to amenity. That wording, not the machinery, decides whether your unit needs permission.
Change of use to an amusement arcade or betting shop
Amusement arcades and betting offices sit outside every use class, so a change of use always needs planning permission. The decision usually turns on frontage policy, clustering and noise rather than on the gambling itself.
Planning a barber, nail bar or beauty salon
Most personal care uses now sit inside Class E, so the use rarely needs permission. Extraction, waste and registration are where the work is.
Mobile catering on private land and the 28-day rule
Part 4 Class B allows temporary use of land for 28 days a year. It does not apply inside the curtilage of a building, which rules out most car parks.
Planning a laundrette or dry cleaner
A self-service laundrette sits outside every use class, while a dry cleaning shop usually does not. The classification decides whether you need permission at all.
Change of use to a vehicle repair garage
A repair workshop is often treated as Class B2, and sales or hire push it outside any class. The application is decided on compressor noise, where vehicles stand and how oil is contained.
Temporary use of a vacant unit for a pop up
The 28 day right in Part 4 Class B applies to land, not to buildings or land within a building's curtilage. That single limitation defeats most high street pop ups.
Shared yards, servicing and refuse in a small parade
The officer's question is not whether your unit can be serviced. It is whether the yard can service your unit plus the others at the same time.
A self storage facility in a former retail warehouse
The building is already the right shape. What the application has to overcome is the loss of a retail unit, and the evidence that does it is a trip generation comparison.
Converting a bank branch to a restaurant
The use change from a former bank to a restaurant often needs no application. The flue route, the shopfront, the basement escape and the vaults are what decide whether the scheme works.
Launderette planning: ventilation, noise and effluent
The change of use is often the easy part. Where humid air can discharge, how continuous dryer noise is assessed, and why trade effluent consent comes early.
Storage and distribution in a small urban unit
For a small storage and distribution unit the application turns on vehicle movements, not floorspace. What to record, what to draw and which conditions to negotiate.
Outdoor seating on a footway outside a cafe
Furniture on the adopted footway needs a pavement licence. Seating on a private forecourt can be a change of use. The title plan and the highway records decide which.
Serviced offices in a building with residential above
Serviced offices in a mixed building rarely fail on use class. They fail on structure-borne noise, out-of-hours access and shared refuse. Here is the evidence that settles each one.
A gym in a light industrial unit
Whether a gym needs permission in an industrial unit depends on the unit's lawful use class. Employment policy, impact noise and evening parking decide the rest.
A nursery in a converted office floor
A day nursery and an office are both in Class E, so the use change is usually free. Play space, the morning drop off peak and upper floor escape are the real tests.
Extraction for a bakery against a restaurant kitchen
The planning procedure is the same for both. What changes is the filtration train, the condensate detail and the time of day the fan noise has to be assessed at.
A dog grooming business in a residential garage
There is no client limit written into legislation. The question is whether the property is still a house with a business in it, and an exclusively converted garage is close to decisive.
Opening a micropub in a former shop unit
Drinking establishments left Class E in 2020, so a shop to micropub conversion needs full planning permission. Customer noise, opening hours and the loss of a local shop decide most applications.
A garden centre: outdoor sales and the retail tests
Growing plants is agriculture and selling them is retail. That line decides which permitted development rights apply, which retail tests bite, and how tightly a council will define what you may sell.
A boxing or martial arts gym in a railway arch
Railway arches suit gyms until the bag work starts. Impact noise through shared masonry, not music, is what decides these applications, and the infrastructure owner has a say before the council does.
An aesthetics clinic in a retail unit
Opening a non surgical aesthetics clinic in a former shop rarely needs a change of use application, because both uses sit inside Class E. The conditions on the old permission, the waste route and the separate registration regimes are what catch people.
Not sure which documents your council will ask for?
Enter your postcode and PlanScope recommends the right reports for your project, then drafts them in minutes.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope