Glossary – Page 11
Substantive definitions of planning terms with their policy source and a worked example.
Glossary articles – page 11
487 articlesScreening opinion: when a scheme needs an EIA
A screening opinion decides whether a proposal needs an Environmental Statement. It is free, takes three weeks and settles the largest unknown in a major application budget.
Grampian condition
A negatively worded condition stops a permission being implemented until off site works are done. Here is how the device works, how it is worded and what to check before buying a consented site.
Vertical sky component
A glossary entry for the daylight measurement that decides most neighbour objections: what it describes, the two part test, where the benchmark comes from and how officers read the numbers.
Council development and regulation 3 applications
A regulation 3 application is made and decided by the same authority. Here are the safeguards that apply, how conditions are enforced and what an objector can realistically do.
Departure applications and the consultation direction
A departure is not a separate application type. It is a conflict with the plan that changes the publicity, the committee route and sometimes the decision timetable.
Compensation when an Article 4 direction removes rights
Owners hearing about an Article 4 direction often ask about compensation. The statutory right exists, and the notice period councils use means it rarely bites.
Deemed planning permission and the situations that create it
Deemed permission is a narrow, statutory idea that gets used loosely. Knowing the handful of places it does arise saves an expensive misunderstanding.
Neighbourhood development orders and community rights
A neighbourhood plan sets policy. A neighbourhood development order grants permission. The difference matters, and it explains why communities make plans and almost never make orders.
National development management policies: what they change
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 created a category of national policy that sits inside the statutory decision test and beats a conflicting local plan policy. Here is how the machinery works and what to check before you cite it.
Windfall allowances in housing land supply
The windfall allowance is the only part of a five year supply resting on prediction. The policy test needs a clean historic series and a mechanism that still works.
Vehicle crossovers and section 184 consent
Section 184 of the Highways Act 1980 governs every vehicle crossing. Whether you also need planning permission turns on whether the road is classified.
Discontinuance orders and stopping an existing lawful use
Section 102 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets a council order a lawful use to stop. Confirmation by the Secretary of State and a compensation bill under section 115 explain why it almost never happens.
Informatives on a decision notice
Informatives sit outside the permission and impose nothing. Read them as a list of the other consents a planning permission does not give you.
Commuted sums and how they are calculated
Commuted sums come out of published formulas, so the arguments that work are about inputs, indexation base dates and payment triggers rather than about whether a sum is payable.
Section 106 monitoring fees
Monitoring fees cover the officer time spent checking that planning obligations are performed. The basis is usually published, and the structure of the agreement often affects the figure more than the rate does.
Time limits for implementing a planning permission
Section 91 gives a full permission three years and section 92 gives outline permission two clocks. Neither can be extended, so the sequence of discharging conditions and recording a material operation is what saves a scheme.
Material operation and lawfully starting development
Marking out and clearing a site do not implement a permission. Section 56 lists the operations that do, and every pre-commencement condition must already be discharged.
Retrospective applications under section 73A
Section 73A lets a council grant permission for work already built. It does not pause enforcement, and where a notice has been served the council may decline to determine it.
Conditions precedent and the Whitley principle
Not every condition worded before commencement is a condition precedent. Where one is, an unlawful start can leave the permission unimplemented and then expired.
Inconsistent permissions and the Pilkington principle
Two permissions on one site is normal. Implementing both is often not. The test the courts apply, the drop-in problem after Hillside, and the file note that settles arguments.
Soundness and the tests at a plan examination
Soundness has four limbs and legal compliance is a separate question with a much harsher outcome. What each test asks, which evidence it targets, and how to write a representation that works.
Ransom strips and the share of uplift
A metre of forgotten grass can hold a scheme to ransom. The Stokes v Cambridge share, how to find a strip during due diligence, and the alternatives to paying.
Completion notices and unfinished development explained
Completion notices sound severe and rarely are. What section 94 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets a council do to a stalled build, and what it cannot touch.
Blight notices and the right to require purchase
Statutory blight is narrower than the everyday sense. The notice works only where the land falls within Schedule 13, the owner qualifies, and a genuine sale attempt has failed.
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