PlanScope Blog – Page 142
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 142
9389 articlesClass C2 and C2A: institutions and secure accommodation
Class C2 turns on care rather than building type, and the boundary with C3 decides affordable housing, levy liability and trip rates. How to evidence the classification.
Permitted development rights and restrictive covenants
A rear extension can be permitted development and still breach your deeds. How to read the Charges Register, judge enforceability, and use a deed of variation or indemnity insurance.
Hair and beauty salons within Class E
Hairdressing is named in the shop limb of the Use Classes Order, so most shop to salon changes need no application. Beauty treatment, flues, conditions and flats above are where the difficulty lies.
Countryside stewardship agreements and planning conditions
Planning permission does not release you from a stewardship agreement. How to evidence an existing agri-environment agreement, amend it before you build, and avoid counting the same habitat twice.
Large HMOs as a sui generis use
The seventh resident turns a C4 share into a sui generis large HMO needing full permission. Concentration policies, communal space, parking evidence and the conditions that follow.
Sheds sold as needing no permission: checking the claim
Suppliers describe a standard specification against general limits. Height near a boundary, ground coverage and position in front of the principal elevation decide the real answer.
Dental practices and the use class question
Health uses sit in Class E(e), so a former shop can become a surgery without permission. The applications that are still needed cover shopfront, plant, signage and waste.
Rural exception sites: the evidence that unlocks them
Exception sites fail on stale need surveys and unbankable section 106 drafting far more often than on policy. The survey, the cascade, the cross-subsidy test and the land value conversation.
Interception storage and the first few millimetres of rain
The first few millimetres of rain never leave a greenfield site. Interception puts that behaviour back, and on a self-build it is usually satisfied by paving, a soakaway and a rain garden.
Woodland and blanket tree preservation orders in practice
Individual, group, woodland and area classifications look the same on a constraints plan and behave very differently. How to read an old order and what the exemptions really allow.
Small HMOs, Class C4 and the six occupant line
Three residents make a property an HMO and seven take it outside Class C4 altogether. The permitted change, Article 4 directions, licensing overlap and the evidence councils want.
Permitted development where access is over an unadopted road
A permitted development right is not a licence to trespass. Checking title, the extent of an easement, splays over land you do not own and the advance payments code.
Agricultural prior notification refused: the options left
Class A prior approval covers siting, design and external appearance only. What a refusal actually means, and why most are fixed by moving the building rather than arguing.
Single stair buildings and the planning consequences
The second staircase requirement is a building regulations change with planning consequences: footprint, massing, unit mix and the route to amend a consent granted on a single core.
Future Homes Standard transitional arrangements explained
Since the 2021 uplift, transitional provisions bite on each individual building rather than the whole site. What that means for a phased scheme and for the planning submission.
Treasure finds during an archaeological evaluation
A hoard found during trial trenching triggers a duty to notify the coroner within 14 days. What counts as treasure, how rewards are shared and where the real programme risk sits.
Vortex flow controls and accuracy at low discharge rates
Low greenfield runoff rates sit at the awkward end of a flow control's operating range. Head, device curves, blockage risk and the as-built discrepancy that catches schemes out.
Article 2(3) land and the permitted development it removes
Rear dormers, side extensions, two-storey rear extensions and cladding all fall away on article 2(3) land. What the designation covers and how to confirm it applies.
The three limbs of Class C3 dwellinghouses
C3(a), (b) and (c) divide ordinary households, small care schemes and other six-resident groups. The tests turn on how the house functions, not on what the operating model is called.
Selling a house where the extension has no paperwork
Permitted development produces no document, which is why conveyancers ask for a certificate. How the three routes differ, and why you cannot use insurance and a certificate together.
Farm succession: planning evidence when the holding splits
Splitting a holding divides the labour requirement, can drop a unit below the Part 6 threshold and leaves occupancy conditions attached to the wrong dwellings. The sequence that avoids it.
Water supplies for firefighting and the evidence required
Fire authorities want hydrants in the right places and proof of the flow behind them. The requests take weeks, so they belong at feasibility rather than at pre-commencement.
The notional building and fabric energy efficiency explained
Part L targets come from a notional dwelling with your geometry and a fixed specification. Why renewables can offset two of the three targets but never the fabric one.
Historic shop and pub interiors as listed fabric
Bar backs, counters, panelling and etched glass in a listed pub or shop are part of the listed building. What that means for a refurbishment, and how to keep a fit-out lawful.
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