Professionals and Qualifications – Page 8
Who is competent to prepare or sign off each report, and how to brief and check them.
Professionals and Qualifications articles – page 8
372 articlesChecking a consultant's appeal track record
Decision letters record what an inspector made of each party's evidence. How to search them, which phrases matter, and what an appeal record cannot tell you.
Play space assessments and who prepares them
Councils ask for one document and it takes three sets of hands. How child yield is calculated, who designs the space, and which standards govern equipment and inspection.
Who can sign a construction management plan
No statutory scheme names who writes a construction management plan. Why the timing of the condition makes that awkward, and how to draft commitments a contractor can actually live with.
Drainage engineer competence for a drainage strategy
There is no statutory competent person scheme for drainage design. What the lead local flood authority reviews, and the questions to ask an engineer before appointing them.
ICNIRP declarations for telecoms masts and who signs them
The radio frequency declaration that accompanies a telecoms prior approval application comes from the operator's radio planning team. What it covers, what it does not, and the four checks to run before submission.
Verified views and photomontage specialist competence
A rendered image that cannot be reproduced from survey data is an illustration. How to specify verified views so they survive an inquiry.
The role of an ecological clerk of works
Supervising ecological mitigation on site only works when the condition, the construction management plan and the building contract line up. What to specify.
Historic building recording levels and recorder competence
A Level 3 condition is a specification, not a formality. What separates the four Historic England recording levels, and the competence each one assumes.
Who prepares an equalities impact assessment
Section 149 puts the duty on the decision maker. Your assessment is the evidence that lets an officer record due regard properly, which is what protects the permission.
Who provides the public health input to an HIA
No licence governs who writes a health impact assessment, but planning expertise alone shows. Where public health input belongs, and how to scope proportionately.
Who prepares a retail impact assessment
A retail impact assessment combines planning judgement, market analysis and centre health check field work. Knowing which of the three your team lacks is the first step in commissioning one.
Energy statements: SAP assessor or energy consultant
A SAP assessor produces the Building Regulations compliance calculation. An energy consultant writes the planning document that answers the local plan's carbon policy. Knowing which you need avoids a revision at validation.
TM59 overheating modelling and modeller competence
There is no register of overheating modellers, so competence is shown through the work. This covers software validation, weather files, opening assumptions, acoustic coordination and the two compliance routes.
Who signs a basement impact assessment
No single professional writes a basement impact assessment. Here is how the hydrogeology, geotechnical and structural strands fit together, who audits them and what the monitoring conditions bind.
Who designs a commercial kitchen extract scheme
Three competences sit behind a workable extract scheme. A submission signed only by the kitchen equipment supplier is the usual reason a change of use fails on odour.
Geotechnical design competence under Eurocode 7
Eurocode 7 names no qualification. It sets three geotechnical categories and makes the experience needed a function of which one your work falls into.
Independence and conflicts in appeal evidence
A proof of evidence has to contain the opinion you hold, not the one your client prefers. What to declare and what to do when your view changes mid-inquiry.
Reading a CV against a validation requirement
Competence in the abstract is not the test. The test is the wording on the local list, and matching a CV against it takes ten minutes.
When a council asks for a chartered structural engineer
Councils ask for chartered structural input when the planning judgement depends on whether a building can be kept, converted or excavated beside safely.
Meeting the RICS professional statement on viability
The RICS professional statement on financial viability makes objectivity a mandatory requirement, not an aspiration. Assessments that read as advocacy get rejected before the numbers are tested.
Choosing a daylight consultant where no licence exists
Anyone can call themselves a daylight consultant. With no licence to check, a client has to test experience, modelling capability and appeal record instead.
Who can prepare a Transport Assessment
Nothing in law says who may write a Transport Assessment. Highway authorities decide whether to believe it, and their confidence rests on institute membership, data access and modelling capability.
Verifying a protected species mitigation licence
Ask for the licence reference, the named ecologist, the species and methods, the site boundary and the expiry date. If any of the five is missing, do not start.
Briefing an ecologist before the survey season
Most ecology survey windows are short and several close by the end of June. Commission the appraisal between October and February and the whole season is yours.
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