PlanScope Blog – Page 108
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 108
9452 articlesUsing build cost indices in a planning appraisal
An index figure without a base date tells a reviewer nothing. Here is how to move a build cost to the valuation date, forecast forward without double counting, and document it so it gets agreed.
Calculating the planning fee for a mixed development
For a mixed development you calculate the fee for each category and pay the highest, not the sum. Here is how the bands, floorspace and site area bases work, and which reliefs apply.
Enforcement grounds (b) and (c) and the difference
Ground (b) of an enforcement appeal is a denial of the facts. Ground (c) concedes them and argues there is no breach. The evidence each needs is entirely different.
Documents for a 2,500 square metre commercial scheme
A 2,500 square metre commercial building is major development and sits on the transport assessment and retail impact thresholds. Here is the pack, and the sequence that stops you rewriting it.
The commitments register in an environmental statement
The commitments register is the table that lets a case officer secure everything an environmental statement assumed. Here is how to structure it so conditions and obligations follow cleanly.
Why nine units and ten units are different applications
Ten dwellings makes a scheme major, and the consequences run from the determination period to affordable housing and the statutory biodiversity metric. Here is how to price the tenth unit properly.
Walkthrough: an equestrian arena and stable block
Keeping horses is agriculture; riding them is not. This illustrative walkthrough follows an arena and four box stable block through siting, lighting, drainage, access and the conditions that followed.
What a validation refusal really costs
Validation failures are administrative, and their consequences are not. The determination period, the committee slot, the survey season and the free resubmission all turn on the valid date.
Determination periods for EIA development and 16 weeks
Article 34 of the DMPO gives EIA applications 16 weeks rather than 13. Here is what starts the clock, how the 30 day publicity period and regulation 25 requests work, and how to programme backwards from committee.
Appeal fees, charges and what the Inspectorate charges for
Lodging a planning appeal is free. The cost sits in the preparation, the evidence and the procedure, and an inquiry budget bears no relation to a householder appeal.
Documents for a basement extension under a terraced house
A basement under a terrace needs more than plans and a planning statement. Here is the evidence councils ask for, from screening and groundwater monitoring to the construction traffic plan and the lightwell detail.
The ground model and Eurocode categories in a geotechnical report
A geotechnical assessment stands or falls on its ground model. Here is how that model is built, what each Eurocode 7 category implies for investigation, and what a planning authority actually needs at application stage.
Hazardous substances consent and the threshold quantities
Consent is needed before a listed substance is present at or above its controlled quantity. It runs with the land, the aggregation rules catch small holdings, and planning permission says nothing about it.
Case management conferences and the inquiry timetable
The case management conference fixes the main issues, the procedure for each and the timetable. Arrive with your own list of issues or argue the other side's framing for the rest of the appeal.
Documents for a site in an aerodrome safeguarding zone
Safeguarding zones reach far beyond the runway. Height data above ordnance datum, drainage without open water and early engagement with the operator keep the application moving.
Gross to net additionality in an economic impact assessment
Gross jobs is the wrong number. Net additional employment, after deadweight, leakage, displacement and substitution, is what an officer can rely on in the planning balance.
Thresholds and level access on a sloping plot
A level threshold on a sloping plot is an argument between access, drainage and damp. The resolution is a 1:5 section, a channel with a real outlet and levels set at both ends.
Structural repair evidence for a listed building
Repair schemes are judged on how little they do. The evidence has to show the cause was diagnosed and that nothing less intrusive would resolve it.
Fabric efficiency against the carbon target in an energy statement
Fabric energy efficiency measures demand alone, so renewables and low carbon heat do nothing for it. Form factor, glazing ratio and junction detailing decide the result.
Vacant Building Credit and how the offset is calculated
The credit sets existing vacant floorspace against the proposed floorspace so the affordable contribution falls on the net increase. Qualification and abandonment are where claims fail.
Walkthrough: a play area added to a housing scheme
Play space arrives late on most housing schemes. This illustrative walkthrough follows the child yield calculation, the layout revision and the obligation that secured maintenance.
Budgeting the evidence base for a major residential scheme
Crossing ten units changes the document list, the consultees and the budget. Sequencing the desk work before the intrusive work is what keeps the technical spend under control.
Public rights of way across a site and the diversion order
A right of way across your site needs its own order under section 257 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Here is the procedure, the objection route and the design that gets confirmed.
Refusal on viability: what to submit on appeal
Viability refusals are usually about demonstration, not viability. The appeal turns on five inputs, the benchmark land value above all, and on evidence the council's assessor cannot discount.
Not sure which documents your council will ask for?
Enter your postcode and PlanScope recommends the right reports for your project, then drafts them in minutes.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope