PlanScope Blog – Page 15
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 15
9618 articlesTrees in third party ownership on a development boundary
A neighbour's tree belongs to whoever owns the ground the trunk stands on, branches and roots included. What you may cut, what needs consent and how to design around it.
Junction capacity modelling outputs an officer can read
Junction modelling disputes are usually about presentation, not numbers. How to report flow to capacity, saturation, queues and scenarios so a case officer can use them.
Appealing a levy chargeable amount to the valuation office
A wrong CIL chargeable amount is fixed by a regulation 113 review within 28 days and an appeal to an appointed person within 60 days. Not after development starts.
Sewer flooding records and what they tell you
Undertakers hold registers of properties at risk of sewer flooding and incident histories with causes. How to get them, how to read them and where they fall short.
Historic graffiti, marks and recording obligations
Protective marks, taper burns and scratched dates are evidence, and routine repair destroys them first. How to find them, record them properly and secure it by condition.
Trip rates and how TRICS output is challenged
A trip rate drives the junction modelling, the mitigation and the highway contributions. Here is how TRICS rates are selected, where they go wrong, and how to challenge one credibly.
The 28 day rule for pop up retail and events
The 28 day rule permits temporary use of land, not buildings, and only 14 of those days may be used for a market. Here is how the days are counted and what the right excludes.
Opportunity Areas and their planning frameworks
London Plan policy SD1 designates Opportunity Areas and Annex 1 gives indicative capacity. The framework underneath is guidance, and its weight depends on who adopted it and when.
Part discharge of conditions and the fee per request
Discharge of conditions is charged per request, so bundling matters. How to group conditions, secure a phase-only approval and keep a record a purchaser's solicitor will accept.
Documents for a cemetery extension onto adjoining land
Extending a burial ground onto the next field is governed by groundwater risk and burial need, not floorspace thresholds. Here is the document set an application should lead with.
Archaeological evaluation on small householder sites
National policy requires no more archaeological evidence than is sufficient to understand the impact. How to show your foundations stop above the deposits, and what a domestic watching brief actually involves.
Opening a holiday let management office in a resort town
The use change is normally outside planning control, so the real issues are restrictive conditions, protected shopping frontages, changeover day vehicle peaks and whether a linen operation has made the premises a mixed use.
Basement policy in London and what the assessment covers
A Basement Impact Assessment runs from three screening exercises through scoped investigation to a ground movement prediction, then an audit by the borough's engineer. What the policies limit and where a basement is simply not acceptable.
Pre-application charging schedules and what the fee buys
The fee buys an officer's opinion, not a decision. How charging tiers are structured, whether specialist and consultee input is included, and the closed questions that produce substantive answers.
Ancillary and incidental use: the distinction that matters
A use can be ancillary to your house without being incidental to it, which is why a self-contained annexe is almost never permitted development. How each test works and what evidence settles it.
Traditional shopfront reinstatement in a conservation area
Authorities welcome shopfront reinstatement and still refuse it when the fascia is too deep or the shutter box sits above the cornice. How to evidence the original design and draw the submission properly.
Opening a bakery with early morning deliveries
Daytime baking is uncontroversial. Deliveries at 4.30am, overnight dough retarders and staff arriving at 3am are what cause refusals. How to design the application around the night period.
Policy D12 fire safety and the Fire Statement
Policy D12 requires an independently authored Fire Statement with every major London application, a wider trigger than the 18 metre national requirement. What it must cover and why statements get held at stage one.
Who drafts conditions after a vote against officer advice
After a vote contrary to the officer recommendation, the conditions are drafted by the officers who recommended refusal. What the resolution delegates, how to influence the wording, and what to do with an unworkable condition.
School and nursery drop off design that works
Education applications turn on the morning peak and the handover time, not the daily total. How to calculate bay numbers, design a loop with no reversing, and put crossings on the real desire lines.
Mezzanine insertions and whether the levy applies
No planning permission means no chargeable development, which is why most mezzanines attract no levy. Where the retail threshold bites, how existing floorspace is deducted, and the policy tests that follow.
Coastal Change Management Areas and rollback
Coastal Change Management Areas are drawn to the 100 year erosion line, so permissions inside them come with removal dates. How time limited consents work, what rollback requires, and why erosion is not covered by flood insurance.
Change of use and the significance of a listed building
The harm in a listed building conversion comes from the alterations the new use requires rather than the use itself. How to assess plan form, service routes and the regulatory package, and how to compare candidate uses.
Biodiversity net gain and nutrient mitigation together
BNG is a planning condition measured in biodiversity units. Nutrient mitigation is a habitats law requirement measured in kilogrammes. Where stacking works, where it fails, and the 30 year versus lifetime problem.
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