PlanScope Blog – Page 113
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 113
9442 articlesEntertainment noise limiters and the condition requiring one
A limiter controls the sound system and nothing else. How the setting is derived backwards from the receptor, which condition wording is enforceable, and why a single A-weighted figure fails on bass.
Marriage value and site assembly in a viability appraisal
Assembly costs are real, but most of them do not reduce what a scheme can contribute. Where acquisition costs, ransom premiums and created marriage value each belong in the appraisal.
Ash dieback and what it changes in a tree survey
Infected ash is not automatically a category U tree. How to record crown decline and basal lesions, categorise honestly, and handle protected ash under the 2012 exemption.
Ancient woodland buffers and the evidence behind them
A 15 metre buffer of semi-natural habitat is the starting point, measured from the woodland edge rather than the inventory polygon. The pressures it addresses and the evidence that moves the figure.
Surface water and highway drainage: who takes the flow
A public sewer carries a statutory right to connect; a highway drain does not. What the highway authority needs to see, what it will charge for, and where to go when it refuses.
Walkthrough: a farm shop and cafe diversification
An illustrative walkthrough of a grain store converted to a farm shop with a cafe extension, where visibility at the field gate and the Christmas parking peak were the two issues that nearly stopped it.
Affordable housing tenure mix as schemes get larger
Policy switches on at 10 units or half a hectare, and from there the tenure mix decides deliverability more than the percentage does. Social rent against affordable rent, ownership products, clustering and the evidence an officer needs.
Zinc and standing seam roofs on a rear extension
A standing seam roof is usually right for a shallow pitch rear extension, and the material is rarely the planning problem. Minimum pitch, how zinc weathers, and why patination oil is a lead product.
Article 9A and how the fire statement is submitted
A fire statement on the prescribed form is a validation requirement, not a supporting document, so an application without one never starts. The trigger, the form and how outline and section 73 applications are treated.
Shadow path diagrams and which dates to model
A shadow study that offers only June and December has answered the wrong question. How to build the 21 March set, which obstructions to model, and how to annotate the amenity area under test.
SAP or PHPP: which figures belong in an energy statement
PHPP tells you how a building will behave; SAP answers the policy. Why the two sets of figures cannot be converted, how to present them side by side, and the conditions that mix them up.
Glazing and ventilator figures to quote in a noise report
A facade acoustic schedule stands or falls on which quantity it names. The difference between Rw, Rw + Ctr, Dn,e,w and field performance, and what to put in the schedule.
Clearing a site before an application and the risk it creates
Stripping a site before you apply raises the biodiversity baseline, invites a provisional Tree Preservation Order and can create criminal liability. What a council can prove, and what to do if the clearance has already happened.
Varying a planning obligation after five years
After the five year relevant period, a statutory application under section 106A replaces negotiation, and a refusal can be appealed under section 106B. What the authority can decide and what it cannot.
Setting assessments for tall buildings near heritage assets
A tower changes the setting of assets you cannot see from the site. How to scope the study area, agree the view list, show the cumulative case and present harm the way a committee will test it.
SSSI impact risk zones and what they actually trigger
An impact risk zone is a consultation trigger, not a designation. How to check the layer on MAGIC and planning.data.gov.uk, read the development categories, and give Natural England what it needs first time.
Raised platforms and floodplain compensatory storage
Raising a site in Flood Zone 3a displaces flood water that has to be replaced band by band. The level for level calculation, the land search, the connectivity tests and how the storage is secured.
Walkthrough: a rear extension over a public sewer
A 4 metre rear extension with a 150mm public sewer running diagonally under the kitchen. This illustrative walkthrough follows the asset search, the build over agreement and the foundation redesign that followed.
When a housing scheme goes to a design review panel
There is no national threshold for design review. Referral comes from the panel's own terms of reference, and the officer discretion clause matters more than the unit count.
Water efficiency standards for new homes in London
New homes in London have to reach 105 litres per person per day of mains water, which the fittings approach in Approved Document G cannot deliver. Here is how the calculation, the evidence and the condition fit together.
Replacing pebbledash with smooth render on a semi
Changing the external finish on one half of a semi-detached pair raises the similar appearance condition in Class A, any Article 4 direction over the street, and a symmetry argument the case officer will make. Here is how each one works.
Small sites in London and the policy presumption
The small sites presumption only operates where the scheme matches the listed development types and meets the design standards. What qualifies, what gets refused, and the documents a small London application needs.
Mortar colour and joint profile on a stone cottage extension
On a rubble stone wall the mortar network reads as strongly as the stone. How to specify the binder, the sand and the joint profile, and why ribbon pointing gets refused.
Facade sound insulation testing and the as built evidence
Post completion testing is the only measured part of an acoustic submission. How to select the sample, which test method applies, how to compare results against the design, and how to handle a failure.
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