PlanScope Blog – Page 14
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 14
9620 articlesRevocation and modification orders explained
A council can revoke or modify a permission it has already granted, but the compensation liability under section 107 is why it almost never does.
Private access roads: rights, maintenance and planning
A permission that relies on a private road raises two separate questions: whether the council accepts the access, and whether you have the legal right to use it.
Extraction flue height for a hot food takeaway
A takeaway application usually turns on the flue: how high it terminates, how the odour is abated and how much noise the fan makes at the nearest bedroom window.
Planting trees in drainage features without conflict
Landscape and drainage layouts are usually drawn by different people and collide at the planning stage. Here is how to reconcile trees with SuDS features.
First Homes price caps and the eligibility tests
First Homes carry a minimum 30 per cent discount, a capped price after that discount and an income test for buyers, all secured through the section 106 agreement.
Compensatory flood storage: level for level in practice
Build in the floodplain and the water you displace has to go somewhere. Level for level compensation is the test, and most schemes fail it on location rather than volume.
Green roofs and living walls in the biodiversity metric
Roof and wall habitats do count towards biodiversity net gain, but substrate depth, maintenance access and the 30-year commitment decide how many units they earn.
Archaeology conditions: wording and discharge
Most archaeology on a development site is handled by a three-part condition. Knowing what each limb requires, and when it bites, keeps the programme intact.
Roller shutters on a shop front in a conservation area
External roller shutters on a shop front usually need permission, and in a conservation area the type of shutter and where the box sits decide the outcome.
The appeal questionnaire and what the council must supply
The council's appeal questionnaire arrives within days of the start date and carries the officer report, policy extracts and consultation responses. Read it before you draft a word.
Imperative reasons of overriding public interest
IROPI is the last-resort route to consent a scheme that will harm a habitats site. It only opens once alternatives are ruled out and compensation is secured.
Blue Ribbon Network policies and water space
The Blue Ribbon Network treats London's water as infrastructure rather than a view. What that means for frontage design, moorings, lighting and bank treatment.
What stops the eight week clock on an application
The determination period runs from the day after a valid application is received. Consultee silence and amended drawings do not pause it; only a written extension does.
Salami slicing and cumulative effects in EIA
Dividing a scheme into sub-threshold applications does not remove the assessment duty. How officers test for a single project and how cumulative effects are scoped.
A trade counter inside a warehouse: the proportion test
No statute fixes the trade counter proportion. The condition on your permission does, and floorspace is only one of the factors that decide whether a counter stays ancillary.
Affordable workspace obligations in London schemes
Discounted rent workspace is secured by section 106 for decades. The discount, the term and the fit-out standard decide whether the obligation is deliverable.
Writing a consultation response an officer can use
Objections that cite a policy number and show evidence get addressed in the officer's report. Objections that express concern get summarised in a sentence.
Urban greening factor and canopy cover targets
The greening factor is a weighted average of surface cover across a site. How to run the calculation, what the weightings reward and where the measure stops being useful.
Highway bonds, commuted sums and who pays
A bond secures completion of an adoptable road and comes back; a commuted sum buys future maintenance and does not. How both are calculated and negotiated.
Registering a planning obligation as a local land charge
A section 106 agreement is a local land charge, so a search shows it exists. It will not show whether payments were made or triggers met, which is the gap buyers fall into.
Flood defence condition and residual life
Defended land stays in its flood zone for a reason. How to read condition grades and standards of protection, and what the breach scenarios have to resolve.
Listed buildings and compliance with access duties
Listed status is not an exemption from the Equality Act, and access improvement is a public benefit in the heritage balance. How the two duties are reconciled in practice.
Subdividing an office into serviced suites
Office subdivision usually needs no permission, since the use stays in Class E(g)(i). The risk lies in occupancy conditions, parking allocation and refuse provision.
Safeguarded wharves on the Thames
Safeguarding directions protect Thames wharves for river freight whether or not they are in use. What release requires, and what an adjoining residential scheme must show.
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