PlanScope Blog – Page 13
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 13
9621 articlesLighting environmental zones E0 to E4 and what they allow
The environmental zone sets every obtrusive light limit in a lighting report, before and after the curfew hour. How the zones are defined, how to justify one, and what the report must contain.
Biosecurity conditions on landscape and planting schemes
A landscape condition is where an authority controls what arrives on site. How sourcing and hygiene requirements are drafted, why absolute wording fails, and what to negotiate instead.
Bus service contributions secured by obligation
A bus contribution buys operating hours rather than an asset, so the question is what happens when the funding period ends. How the subsidy gap is built up and how to answer a request.
Affordable housing on custom and self-build schemes
There is no national affordable housing exemption for self-build. Relief comes from the ten unit threshold, from local policy or from viability. How the register, serviced plots and the levy exemption fit together.
Phasing drainage across a multi-phase site
An approved drainage scheme usually describes the finished site. On a phased development the interim conditions are where discharges and pollution incidents happen. What to draw, condition and document.
Trade waste storage for a parade of shops
Waste storage, not floorspace, decides many parade applications. How to build up capacity from the business, design a usable store and allocate a shared one between units.
Primary energy and the three Part L 2021 compliance targets
Approved Document L Volume 1 sets three separate targets for a new dwelling, generated from a notional specification. Why the primary energy metric changes design decisions and what the energy statement must show.
IAQM construction dust risk categories and mitigation
A construction dust assessment produces a risk category per activity rather than a modelled concentration. How the scoring works, what mitigation follows, and how to discharge the condition.
The duty to consider tree preservation when granting permission
Section 197 obliges a local planning authority to secure adequate provision for the preservation or planting of trees when it grants permission, and to make any Order needed in connection with that grant.
Internal road widths, turning heads and fire access
Three rule sets govern an estate road: fire appliance dimensions, refuse vehicle swept paths and what the highway authority will adopt. Which one binds, and the order to work them in.
Car club and cycle hire contributions as mitigation
Shared vehicle and cycle hire contributions are the usual price of reduced parking. What the regulation 122 tests require, why an on-street bay is outside the developer's control, and how to draft for that.
Permeable paving where the ground is contaminated
Infiltration supplies the pathway between contaminated soil and groundwater, which is why source protection zones and made ground push designers towards lined permeable systems. How to evidence and condition the alternative.
A 24 hour gym: conditions and management plans
Round-the-clock fitness use is decided on night period noise, impact from free weights and unstaffed access arrangements rather than on the change of use itself. What to assess and what to submit.
Varying a permission for development already begun
Section 73B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows a permission to be varied where the effect is not substantially different, including for works already carried out. How the test works, and how to choose between the routes.
Travel plan bonds and monitoring sums in an agreement
A travel plan bond turns a soft commitment into money at risk. The drafting that matters is how targets are measured and how the bond gets released.
Trash screens, blockage scenarios and sensitivity tests
A culvert that performs perfectly in the design case can flood a site when the screen clogs. Blockage scenarios are where the real risk usually sits.
Hotel to aparthotel: where the C1 boundary sits
Serviced apartments sit in Class C1 only while they operate like a hotel. Length of stay, reception and shared facilities are what hold the line.
Planning history searches before you buy a site
The standard search misses more planning risk than it finds. Here is what to check on the register, and what to ask before you exchange.
Odour and separation distance for a waste transfer station
Separation distance is a screening tool, not a standard. For a waste transfer station the planning case rests on source characterisation and dispersion modelling.
Sizing replacement planting by canopy area, not numbers
Replacing a 90-year-old oak with one nursery standard replaces about one per cent of the canopy. Sizing replacement by area is the argument that holds up.
Loading bays and how traffic regulation orders are made
A planning permission cannot create a loading bay on the public highway. Only a traffic regulation order can, and it runs on its own timetable.
Discounted market sale and restrictions in perpetuity
Discounted market sale looks like the simplest affordable tenure to deliver. The restriction that keeps the discount on every resale is where it gets complicated.
Surface water from a neighbouring site and riparian rights
Water running downhill onto your land is usually lawful. Water that a neighbour has collected, concentrated or piped towards you is a different matter.
Flue height for a restaurant below residential flats
When the flats are in the same building as your restaurant, the flue stops being a planning detail and becomes a routing, fire and access problem all at once.
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