PlanScope Blog – Page 11
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 11
9625 articlesFire statements for the conversion of an existing block
On a conversion you are describing a building nobody has seen inside since it was built. What to survey, which existing constraints shape the strategy, and how to present residual uncertainty.
Pre-redevelopment audit: what to record before demolition
Once the soft strip starts, quantities are guesses and condition assessment is impossible. What to record, which materials have real reuse value, and how the audit feeds the waste and carbon targets.
Trees in a flood plain and their effect on conveyance
A landscape proposal that looks like an unalloyed good can raise flood levels on a neighbour's land. How conveyance works, where the Environment Agency objects and how to design the objection out.
Lorry routing agreements for a quarry or waste site
A condition cannot regulate the public highway, so routing is secured by controlling the use of the site. What a workable scheme contains, how it is monitored and where breaches come from.
Wales: the biodiversity duty under the Environment Wales Act
Section 6 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 requires authorities to maintain and enhance biodiversity and promote ecosystem resilience. There is no statutory percentage and no metric, which changes what your evidence has to do.
Decontamination and plant rooms in a clinical fit out
Fitting out a Class E unit as a clinic is usually not a change of use. The application is about condensers, flues, compressor noise, the clinical waste store and trade effluent consent.
Authority monitoring reports: what applicants can use
Every English authority must publish a monitoring report under section 35 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. It is free, admissible and rarely read. Here is what it contains and how to use it.
Phased payments and instalment policies for the levy
The default is the whole levy within 60 days of starting on site. Instalment policies, phased permissions and the notice sequence that protects both, plus the surcharges for getting it wrong.
What the Building Safety Regulator asks of a fire statement
The Building Safety Regulator comments on whether fire safety shaped the design. Here are the themes a Gateway One review covers, the drawing package behind the form, and how to answer a request for more information.
Energy statement evidence a case officer actually checks
An officer wants a stated baseline, a stated improvement, modelling output that supports it and commitments precise enough to condition. The gap between a passing statement and a rejected one is mostly appendices.
Tree protection during demolition works
The barriers in an arboricultural method statement are usually drawn for the build phase, but the demolition contractor arrives first. Sequencing, machine selection and the hold points that keep trees alive.
Driver facilities and parking at a logistics unit
Highway officers now test how many drivers sleep on site, where they wash and what stops the overflow parking on the estate road. Dimensions, noise criteria and the conditions that follow.
Wales: developer contributions and the levy position
Welsh developer contributions run on section 106 and, in a minority of authorities, CIL. The Infrastructure Levy is an England measure. Here is what changes for viability, affordable housing and heads of terms.
Turning a function room into a separate unit
Splitting a function room off from a pub or hotel is rarely about the partition wall. The question is whether a new planning unit with a different use class has been created, and what evidence the council will want.
Site notices and neighbour notification: the statutory minimum
For most applications the council may display a site notice or write to adjoining neighbours, not both. Here is what Article 15 of the DMPO 2015 requires, how the 21 days is counted and what to do when publicity fails.
PAS 2035 retrofit and the planning consents it needs
A retrofit can be fully PAS 2035 compliant and still unlawful. Here is which measures need planning permission or listed building consent, and in what order to deal with them.
Veteranisation and monoliths as an alternative to felling
A monolith keeps the decay features that took decades to form while removing the failure risk. Here is how the risk case is made and how retention is secured.
Sightlines over land you do not control
A condition requiring you to keep land clear that you do not control is unenforceable. Here are the mechanisms that actually secure a splay, and the alternatives when the owner refuses.
Northern Ireland: application categories and who decides
The Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 sets three development categories that decide the decision maker, the pre-application duties and the likely timescale.
Registered childcare numbers against a planning condition
Registration works from floor area; planning works from parking, drop-off and noise. Where the planning cap is lower it binds, and here is how to vary it.
Scotland: certificates of lawful use or development
A certificate under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 is the only formal way to prove a use is lawful. Here is the evidence standard and how Scotland differs from England.
Wales: SuDS approval bodies and Schedule 3 consent
Wales brought Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 into force, creating a separate drainage approval. Here is what needs it, what to submit and how adoption works.
Scotland: biodiversity and the positive effects requirement
NPF4 asks Scottish development to conserve, restore and enhance biodiversity, with a tougher test for national and major schemes. Here is the evidence that satisfies it.
Wales: how permitted development differs from England
Welsh householder permitted development comes from the 1995 Order as amended for Wales. English guidance, calculators and the larger home extension scheme do not apply.
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