PlanScope Blog – Page 138
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 138
9396 articlesRetaining walls and permitted development limits
The wall may be permitted development. The excavation behind it usually is not. How heights are measured, why sections decide these cases, and what the Party Wall Act adds.
Reclaimed brick and steel reuse on a demolition site
Lime mortar gives clean brick recovery and cement mortar rarely does. Reused steel needs its properties established for BS EN 1090-1. Scope both before committing to a reuse condition.
Schools, colleges and commercial training premises
Education is Class F1(a), nurseries were moved to Class E in 2020, and commercial training sits on the line between them. What that means for a change of use application.
Daylight modelling dates and the benchmark days
Sunlight tests run on fixed dates while daylight tests do not. What the equinox criterion asks for, how the annual and winter sunlight periods are defined, and which plots an officer needs.
Reflectance assumptions in a courtyard scheme
Inter-reflected light carries the lowest floors of a courtyard. Which reflectance values to model, how to evidence them, and the design moves that shift the result more than finishes do.
Lighting a sports pitch without an amenity refusal
Floodlighting applications are refused on amenity grounds, rarely on principle. Set the lighting class to the standard of play, then design spill, glare and hours around the nearest windows.
Tree risk assessment and target zones on a development site
A layout that puts a play area under a mature tree has raised its risk without touching it. How target occupancy drives inspection intervals, and what to hand over at the end of the build.
Basement pumped drainage and non return protection
A basement below the level of the public sewer needs a sump, a pump and protection against surcharge. What Approved Document H expects, and what the council and the sewerage undertaker each want to see.
Reporting regulated and unregulated emissions separately
Part L targets and carbon offset payments bite on regulated emissions only. Reporting both categories in one table, with the policy figure labelled, stops the most common review comment.
Is a car park a use class? Parking under the 1987 Order
Parking appears in none of the use classes. A standalone car park is sui generis, ancillary parking forms part of the main use, and the difference decides whether you need permission.
Gates, barriers and fire service access
Designing out crime and fire appliance access pull in opposite directions at a gated entrance. How to reconcile them on one drawing and keep it working after handover.
Proportionate sustainability statements for small schemes
Policies written for major schemes get applied to single dwellings through validation lists. How to answer each criterion with the shortest sufficient evidence.
Riparian ownership: the duties that come with a stream
Own land beside a stream and you own to the centre line, with duties to maintain the channel and pass flow on. What needs consent, and what a development site must record.
Caravan and camping sites: permission and the licence
Planning permission comes first, then the site licence, and the model standards decide pitch density. What a rural caravan or camping application has to evidence.
Noise survey timing and the periods to avoid
The background you measure becomes the yardstick for the whole assessment, so the dates matter. Which periods to avoid, what weather invalidates data, and how to agree the method first.
Construction vibration and the limits in BS 5228 part 2
Complaints begin at about one millimetre per second and cosmetic damage needs tens of them. How BS 5228-2 separates the two scales and what a monitoring regime should specify.
Root barriers near buildings, drains and highways
Root barriers stop shallow root ingress but not clay shrinkage. How to specify depth, joints and terminations, and when the foundation design is the real answer.
Shoring and stability where a neighbour objects
A neighbour's fear of cracking is mostly a party wall matter, unless the development plan has a stability policy. What the council can control and what it cannot.
Green roof performance claims and the evidence behind them
Attenuation, habitat and cooling are three different claims resting on different parts of the build-up. What each needs by way of specification and evidence.
Drainage information for a minor planning application
The national requirements do not include a drainage strategy. What a proportionate drainage note for a small site contains, and the queries that delay validation.
Retail warehouses and bulky goods conditions
A goods restriction beats the use class, and varying one reopens the sequential and impact tests. What to read before taking a lease and what a section 73 application has to prove.
Parking survey timing and the nights that count
A parking stress survey measures the kerb when everyone is home, so the nights chosen decide whether it stands up. The count window, the periods to avoid and how to present the arithmetic.
Odour assessment for a hot food premises using FIDOL
Kitchen odour is assessed qualitatively through the FIDOL factors, then answered with filtration and termination. What to record so an environmental health officer can approve it.
When tree removal and replacement is the honest answer
Some trees cannot be retained whatever the layout. What evidence supports a category U finding, how to avoid overstating the case, and what replacement planting has to specify.
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