PlanScope Blog – Page 133
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 133
9404 articlesSecondary glazing in a listed building and the energy case
Reversibility is what carries the heritage balance. How to detail and document secondary glazing so consent follows, and when slim profile units can be argued for.
Build over agreements and sewer diversions in your budget
The application fee is small. The foundation redesign, the eight week wait and the diversion you find after the slab is poured are not. How to sequence and price it.
Retrospective appeals when the work is already built
The council assesses a retrospective application as if nothing had been built. What changes is your room for manoeuvre once an enforcement notice has been issued.
Reports needed for a school expansion in a built up area
An expansion stays within Class F1(a), so the application is about intensification rather than change of use. Here is the evidence base, from Sport England to term-time phasing.
Getting planning documents the council has not published
Asking under the right regime changes which exceptions the council can rely on. How to word a request for missing planning documents, and what to do when it is refused.
Section 73 permissions and CIL recalculation
Varying a condition creates a new permission, a new liability notice and a new set of exemption claims. Where the levy is abated, and where it is lost.
Basement swimming pools: plant, ventilation and discharge
Councils rarely object to the pool. They object to the plant, the louvres, the chlorinated backwash and the muck away lorries. How to design and document each one.
Assigning room use in daylight reports without floor plans
The assumed use of a neighbour's room decides which BRE 209 test applies. A repeatable method for assigning uses from outside, and for defending the schedule.
Timber sequestration claims in whole life carbon reporting
Sequestered carbon in timber is reported, not claimed. Where it belongs in the modules, what sourcing evidence a council expects, and the assumptions that get assessments sent back.
What a protected species licence costs in time and money
A mitigation licence is a chain of costs, not one invoice, and the season you miss is more expensive than any of the fees. How to budget it on a small site.
Recovered appeals: when the Secretary of State decides
A recovered appeal is heard by an inspector but decided by the Secretary of State. What changes, what does not, and where the challenge risk sits.
Reports needed for a glamping or camping business
Permitted development only covers a short temporary use each year. Here is the evidence base an English council will want for a glamping or camping business, from foul drainage to dark skies.
Post occupancy evaluation commitments in a condition
A condition requiring in-use energy data years after occupation binds whoever owns the land by then. Say who that is before the condition is imposed.
Budgeting an environmental statement for Schedule 2 work
The competent expert requirement sets the floor on what an Environmental Statement costs. Survey seasons set the programme, and the programme sets the cash flow.
Habitats issues at appeal: nutrient and recreational impacts
An inspector cannot grant permission unless certain there is no adverse effect on site integrity. That shifts the evidence burden onto the appellant long before the hearing.
Reports needed for a dog day care or boarding business
Barking is the objection that decides these applications. Build the submission around a proper noise assessment and the rest follows more easily.
Tree works notifications in a conservation area
A section 211 notice gives the council six weeks to decide whether to protect a tree in a conservation area. Nobody has to tell the neighbours.
Local labour and apprenticeship clauses in section 106
Employment and skills clauses are easy to agree and hard to deliver. The drafting choices that matter are the target basis, the default payment and who reports.
Floor loadings when converting commercial space to homes
A lower imposed load looks like good news until you add the acoustic floor, the partitions and the services. Survey the frame before you price the conversion.
Assessing daylight against a consented scheme next door
An extant permission next door changes what your daylight results mean. Assess against the built situation first, then add the consented case and label both.
Thermal bridging assumptions officers question
A calculated set of junction values can be worth the whole of a scheme's carbon improvement margin. Officers increasingly ask to see the calculations behind them.
Fees where a site straddles two local authority areas
Development spanning a council boundary means two applications, two validation lists and two determination periods. The fee is handled once; almost nothing else is.
Hedgerow removal notices and appealing a retention notice
A hedgerow retention notice can be appealed to the Secretary of State within 28 days. Winning turns on the Schedule 1 criteria rather than on farming need.
Right to light and daylight assessment are different things
Objecting to a planning application and enforcing a right to light are two different processes with different deadlines, different evidence and different outcomes.
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