Glossary – Page 15
Substantive definitions of planning terms with their policy source and a worked example.
Glossary articles – page 15
483 articlesUnilateral undertaking: a section 106 the council does not sign
A unilateral undertaking is a planning obligation you give alone, by deed, without the council signing. It binds the land, appears on searches, and cannot require the authority to do anything.
Local Green Space: the designation and its policy effect
A Local Green Space is protected as if it were Green Belt, and can only be designated while a plan is being prepared or reviewed. Here are the three tests and the evidence that satisfies them.
Assets of community value: what listing does and does not do
Listing under the Localism Act 2011 gives a community group time to bid, not a right to buy. Here is what the moratorium covers, who can nominate, and how much weight a listing carries in a planning decision.
Local Development Order: permission granted by the council
If your premises sit inside a local development order and your proposal fits its terms, you can proceed without a planning application or a fee. Read the order text, not the summary.
Stopping up an adopted highway under section 247
Public highway rights survive the grant of planning permission. If your building footprint crosses adopted highway, you need a stopping up order before you can build over it.
Section 278 agreement: works to the public highway
Planning permission gives you no right to dig up the road. A section 278 agreement under the Highways Act 1980 does, and it carries its own design approval, bond and fee regime.
Certificates of ownership A to D: getting them right
Most applicants sign Certificate A without checking the title. A shared driveway, an estate road or a strip of verge puts you in Certificate B, and the notice has to be served before you apply.
Irreplaceable habitat: what the term covers in planning
Where a site holds irreplaceable habitat the biodiversity metric does not save the scheme. The policy test is close to a prohibition, so the work is avoidance and buffering.
Functional floodplain: what Flood Zone 3b actually means
The functional floodplain is land where water has to flow or be stored. It is defined locally in a strategic flood risk assessment, which is why the national map never shows it.
Less than substantial harm: the heritage balance explained
Less than substantial harm covers everything from barely perceptible change to serious erosion of significance. Here is how to place a scheme in that range and write the balance so an officer can quote it.
Validation checklist: national and local requirements
The national requirements come from the procedure order and cannot be waived. Local lists are published by each authority and must be reasonable and current. How to build a pack that validates.
Enforcement notice: what it contains and how to appeal
Section 172 enforcement notices must specify the breach, the steps and the effective date. The seven statutory grounds of appeal, the evidence each needs and what happens if the deadline is missed.
Breach of condition notice: how it works and why it bites
Section 187A notices require compliance with a planning condition and carry no appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. The compliance period, the statutory defences and the routes that remain open.
Tilted balance: when the presumption in favour applies
The tilted balance is engaged where the most important development plan policies are out of date. The trigger, the protective policies that switch it off, and how inspectors weigh the balance.
Grampian condition: securing works on land you do not control
A Grampian condition stops development until off-site works exist, which lets a council approve a scheme depending on land the applicant cannot control. The drafting decides whether it works.
Curtilage: what it means and where the boundary falls
Curtilage is not your garden, your fence line or your title boundary. It decides whether Part 1 permitted development rights reach the end of your plot, and the courts settle it on fact and degree.
Material consideration: what a council can lawfully consider
Material considerations are set by section 70(2) of the 1990 Act and by case law, not by a list. Here is what councils can weigh, what they must ignore, and why volume of objections is not weight.
Trip rate: what it measures and how it is derived
Trip rates drive junction capacity, parking demand and whether a scheme needs a transport assessment. Here is what the unit means, how survey site selection changes the figure, and how netting off an existing lawful use works.
Rating level: how a BS 4142 figure is built up
The rating level in a BS 4142 noise assessment is the specific sound level plus a correction for tonality, impulsivity or intermittency, compared against the background LA90. Here is how each part is measured and where assessments go wrong.
Curtilage: what it covers and how it is decided
Curtilage decides how much you can build without applying and what listed building consent catches. It is a question of fact, settled on layout, ownership and function.
Article 2(3) land and the rights it takes away
If your house sits on article 2(3) land, several householder permitted development rights simply do not apply. The designation does the work automatically, with no direction needed.
Deemed planning application on a ground (a) appeal
Appealing an enforcement notice on ground (a) automatically puts a planning application in front of an inspector. This explains how the deemed application works, what it costs and what happens when it fails.
Employment density: turning floorspace into job numbers
Every job figure in a planning application comes from a density assumption. Get the area basis and the use category right, or the whole economic case is overstated.
Section 278 agreements: highway works a developer pays for
Section 278 of the Highways Act 1980 is the contract behind every new junction, crossing and footway a development builds. What it covers and how long it takes.
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