Constraints and Designations – Page 4
Green Belt, conservation areas, flood zones, SSSIs and other designations, and the reports they trigger.
Constraints and Designations articles – page 4
294 articlesHazardous installation consultation distances and housing
Inside a hazardous installation consultation distance the regulator either advises against a scheme or does not. Layout and occupancy are the only real levers, and glazing specification is not one.
Flood Zone 3b functional floodplain and what it rules out
Flood Zone 3b is defined by the council, not the national flood map, and only water-compatible development and essential infrastructure are appropriate there. Here is how to work with it.
National Park purposes in development decisions
National Park authorities work to two statutory purposes, and conservation wins where they cannot be reconciled. Here is how that plays out in development management and what evidence to bring.
Grey belt land: applying the definition to a site
Grey belt is a test of contribution to Green Belt purposes, not of how untidy land looks. Here is how to define the parcel, assess each purpose and evidence the conclusion.
Heathland disturbance zones and mitigation greenspace
Recreational disturbance to designated lowland heath is a legal test rather than a policy preference. Here is how the zones work, what greenspace standards apply and how the mitigation is secured.
Coal mining reporting areas and the referral process
A plot in a Development High Risk Area needs a Coal Mining Risk Assessment with the application. Here is how to check the mapping, what the report must say, and where the money goes.
Assets of community value and planning decisions
Listing buys a community group time and gives a decision maker evidence. It is not a veto. This sets out the weight it carries and the evidence both sides need.
Historic landfill and contaminated land registers
Absence from a council's contaminated land register means almost nothing. This sets out the datasets that do matter, the 250 metre statutory trigger and the Phase 1 to Phase 2 sequence.
Green Belt boundaries: checking and reading them
The adopted policies map is the only authority on a Green Belt boundary. How to check it, what inset villages change, and why farm buildings are not brownfield.
Scheduled monuments and their setting in decisions
Scheduling protects mapped remains under the 1979 Act. Setting is a planning question. How the two regimes divide, and what evidence each one wants.
Locally listed buildings and the weight they carry
A local heritage list entry needs no consent and removes no permitted development rights, but it changes how every application on the building is judged.
Heritage at risk entries and what they signal
An at risk entry gives you published evidence of condition, not a discount on harm. This covers the register's coverage, the A to F priority categories, the deliberate neglect trap and the evidence pack.
Groundwater abstraction points and the 50 metre rule
A drainage field, slurry store or manure spreading operation must keep 50 metres from a spring, well or borehole used for drinking water. Here is how to find them and what to submit.
Local plan site allocations and their weight
An allocation settles the principle and leaves capacity, access and infrastructure open. This sets out the weight at each plan stage, the requirements written into allocation policies and how departures are judged.
Air quality assessment triggers for small schemes
Small schemes are screened in by traffic change, new combustion plant or new exposure to existing pollution, not by floorspace. Here are the criteria officers apply and what a proportionate assessment contains.
Registered common rights and who holds them
The commons register records the land, the rights over it and the owner of the soil. Registered common land cannot be fenced or built on without consent, and none of it shows on the title.
Waste consultation areas and nearby development
A safeguarded waste facility was there first. What a consultation area requires of a nearby application, the statutory 250 metre trigger, and the layout decisions that make a scheme work.
Green Belt boundary changes through a plan review
Exceptional circumstances at plan making is a different test from very special circumstances on an application. How a Green Belt review works, what safeguarded land means and where to intervene.
Checking a site on the national environment map
A MAGIC map site check takes twenty minutes and flags impact risk zones, priority habitat, ancient woodland and nutrient catchments. Here is how to run one and what it will not tell you.
Designations on the national planning data service
The national planning data service is the fastest way to screen a site, provided you read a nil result as an absence of published data rather than an absence of designation.
Explosives safeguarding and population density
Inside an explosives consultation zone, the number of people your scheme puts on the land decides the answer. Construction mitigation does not help, but layout can.
Main river or ordinary watercourse: how to check
Main river or ordinary watercourse decides whether you need a flood risk activity permit or land drainage consent. Size is no guide, and applying to the wrong body wastes a month.
Flood defence byelaw margins and works near a bank
An eight metre strip beside a main river, sixteen beside a tidal one, needs an Environment Agency permit before you build, dig, plant or store anything in it.
Rail safeguarding directions and their effect
A safeguarding direction makes the railway promoter a consultee on every application inside the limits and can restrict the grant of permission. Here is what it asks of your design.
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