PlanScope Blog – Page 141
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 141
9390 articlesRetaining existing structure: what an appraisal must establish
At planning stage a structural appraisal must establish whether the existing frame can carry the proposed scheme, at what cost and programme penalty. Condition alone answers nothing.
Sizing a rooftop photovoltaic array for a planning submission
A planning authority checks that the roof plan could physically carry the array and that the capacity claimed matches it. Measure the usable area first, then state every assumption behind the kWp and the yield.
Lime render, thatch and traditional material conditions
Materials conditions on listed building consents exist because cement on a soft wall causes damage within a few winters. Here is how to specify lime and thatch properly and get the sample panel approved.
Internal drainage board districts and drainage rates
Internal drainage boards consent works to the watercourses they maintain, enforce a byelaw strip for maintenance access, set surface water discharge rates and raise drainage rates or a special levy. None of it is delivered by a planning condition.
Permissions granted before the 2020 use class changes
The 2020 amendments preserved references to the old use classes in permissions granted before 1 September 2020. Reading those conditions, and deciding whether section 73 or a certificate is the route, is the practical work.
Part 7 extensions to shops, offices and industrial units
Part 7 of the GPDO 2015 grants extension rights for shops, offices, industrial buildings and warehouses. The caps are measured against the original building, and the boundary distances are absolute.
Pharmacies and their position within Class E
Retail sale and health services have both sat inside Class E since September 2020, so most pharmacy fit-outs need no change of use application. Old conditions, external plant and shopfront design are where the work is.
Changing the use of part of a building only
Part of a building can be its own planning unit where it is physically separate and used for an unrelated purpose. How to test that and how to describe the change.
Self storage: which class and where it fits policy
The classification is the easy part. The argument is about job density on allocated employment land, and transport is usually the applicant's strongest ground.
Designing layouts to avoid future pressure to fell trees
BS 5837 protection keeps a tree alive to handover. Layout decides whether it survives ten years of residents. Mature canopy testing, plot sizing and funded management.
Cycle parking standards and stand spacing for flats
Cycle stores fail on dimensions more than on numbers. Stand centres, aisle widths, two-tier limits, cargo cycle spaces and the drawing that gets accepted.
Structural appraisal for converting an agricultural building
The permitted development right does not extend to new structural elements. How to assess frame, foundations and cladding separately, and where the appraisal kills the case.
Evidencing heat network feasibility in an energy statement
Most energy statements say no network was identified without showing that anyone looked. The search, the enquiries, the four kinds of reply and the safeguarding that follows.
Heritage at risk and the case for consent to alter
National policy disregards deterioration caused by deliberate neglect. How to build a credible condition, cost and viability case for altering a building on the at risk register.
Groundwater flooding in chalk and limestone catchments
The water table rises through winter until it reaches the ground and stays for weeks. Why the flood maps miss it, where it recurs, and how to design for it.
Losing a community facility: Class F2 and local protection
Class F2 uses have very limited change rights, so most losses need a full application. The policy tests, the marketing evidence to interrogate, and what an ACV listing really does.
Party wall duties triggered by permitted development
A rear extension can need no planning application and still need party wall notices. The section 6 excavation tests, notice contents, dissent and the award explained.
Betting shops, vape shops and sui generis retail
Betting offices, pay day loan shops and hot food takeaways sit outside Class E with no route back in. What that means for lettings, frontage policy and conditions.
Root protection areas for multi-stem and coppiced trees
Two to five stems combine as the square root of the sum of squares. More than five use the mean. How to derive, cap and reshape a root protection area defensibly.
Visibility splays and the stopping sight distance calculation
The x distance comes from Manual for Streets, the y distance from the stopping sight distance at observed speeds. How to evidence both and keep the splay deliverable.
Fire statement or fire safety strategy: when each applies
The fire statement is a planning document required by article 9A of the DMPO 2015. The fire safety strategy proves Part B compliance later. How to run both without contradiction.
Calculating and securing a carbon offset contribution
The offset sum is residual regulated emissions, times a period, times a price per tonne. How each number is derived and how the obligation should be drafted for a phased scheme.
Reading a historic farmstead before you convert it
Significance in a farmstead sits in the plan form, the working volumes and the pattern of openings. How to read a threshing barn, date its openings and judge group value.
Soakaway design for a householder extension
Rainwater from a new extension roof is a Building Regulations question, not a planning one. The 5 m separation, the percolation test, BRE sizing and the alternatives when clay defeats you.
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