PlanScope Blog – Page 101
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 101
9464 articlesBudgeting a survey season into a planning programme
The survey fee is rarely the expensive part. Missing a bat or newt window by a fortnight can add eight months of interest, fees and option payments to a scheme.
World Heritage Site buffer zones and attributes of value
A buffer zone is not a statutory designation. What matters is whether your scheme affects the attributes that carry Outstanding Universal Value, which is a different assessment entirely.
Conflicts of interest when reviewing a planning report
The test is not whether you feel impartial but whether a reasonable person would doubt it. Here are the six patterns that catch reviewers, and the four-line declaration that fixes most of them.
Cycle parking standards by dwelling count
There is no national cycle parking standard for homes. Here is how the per-dwelling figures are set, what a store drawing has to show, and where two-tier racks fail.
Obscure glazing and the 1.7 metre opening restriction
The 1.7 metre line is measured from the floor inside, not the ground outside. Get it wrong and the whole extension drops out of permitted development.
Floorspace forecasting in an employment land assessment
Employment land forecasts are built from four methods that rarely agree. Here is how each one works, where the assumptions hide, and how a deliverable supply review changes the answer.
Document bundle for a Green Belt infill plot
A Green Belt infill application stands or falls on which exception it relies on. Here is the evidence each one needs, and the drawings that decide whether a gap counts as infilling.
Pollutant linkage: what it means for contaminated land
Contaminated land decisions turn on whether a source, a pathway and a receptor are actually connected. Here is how that chain is tested, broken and verified in a planning application.
Statement of common ground or a proof of evidence
One document records agreed facts and is signed by both parties. The other states a single witness's opinion and gets cross-examined. Here is how to keep them apart.
Converting a redundant church into housing
Church conversions turn on three things councils test hard: whether community use was properly marketed, how much harm subdivision causes, and what lies under the churchyard.
A roof terrace on a Victorian terraced house
Class A excludes balconies and raised platforms, so a roof terrace always needs permission. How overlooking is assessed, which screening works, and the sightline drawing most applications omit.
Extending a consultation period: when it is worth the delay
An extension of time is a commercial judgement, not a courtesy. What it does to the fee refund, the appeal right and survey validity, and when to decline one.
Monitoring commitments inside a travel plan
Measures fill most travel plans; commitments make them work. Baseline timing and method, targets that can be measured, the coordinator role, reporting and remedial triggers.
Documents for a scheme in a National Landscape
Development inside a National Landscape needs landscape and visual evidence, a lighting response designed for dark skies, detailed materials information and ecology survey work.
The seven metre rule for two-storey rear extensions
Class A removes permitted development for a two-storey rear extension within 7 metres of the opposite rear boundary. How the measurement works, plus the depth, pitch and window conditions.
Peer review against professional review: the difference
Peer review improves a report; professional review changes who stands behind it. What each one checks, what the declaration commits the reviewer to, and how councils treat them at validation.
Private amenity space standards per dwelling
Amenity space standards come from the local plan, a design guide or the London Plan rather than national policy. What counts, what is excluded, and why the dimension test catches more schemes than the area.
Conservation covenant or section 106 for habitat delivery
A section 106 binds habitat land to the council; a conservation covenant binds it to a designated responsible body. How the parties, duration, registration and negotiation time differ.
Topographic surveys: what to specify and what it costs
Surveyors price what you ask for, so the specification controls the cost. What to capture inside and outside the boundary, which deliverables to name, and the omissions that force a second visit.
A static caravan in the garden for a dependent relative
Siting a caravan is rarely operational development, so the question is whether occupation amounts to a separate dwelling. The statutory definition, the licensing exemption and the conditions councils use.
Residual effects tables in an environmental statement
A residual effects table states what is left after mitigation and whether it is significant. The columns that make it checkable, and the inconsistencies readers find first.
Documents for a site inside an air quality management area
A declaration under Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 lowers the threshold for assessment and raises the expectation of mitigation. The documents a scheme inside a management area should carry.
What a reviewer's sign-off declaration commits them to
A sign-off declaration says who you are, what you examined and what you are not asserting. The fields that make it defensible, and when to decline the review altogether.
Upfront carbon in modules A1 to A5
Upfront carbon covers the product stage, transport to site and construction process, all emitted before occupation. What each module includes, which data counts, and why module D stays out of the total.
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