PlanScope Blog – Page 159
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 159
9357 articlesStructural appraisal for new homes above a shop unit
Part 20 prior approval requires a chartered engineer to confirm the scheme is structurally safe. Everywhere else the appraisal protects your budget rather than the application.
Lux limits at a bat roost access point
Bat sensitive lighting is not a specification. What protects a roost is a stated lux figure at an identified access point, measured in the right plane and checked after installation.
Root barriers: where they work and where they fail
Root barriers are offered far more often than they are justified. The trench that installs one does the damage on day one, and the benefit only arrives decades later.
Historic shop interiors and the loss nobody records
A listed shop is listed inside as well as out, and fitted counters, tiling and cabinetry are usually fixtures. Strip them out without consent and the liability sits with whoever instructed the work.
Student rooms, bedspaces and how thresholds are applied
A student block becomes major development on floorspace, not on unit count. Here is which figure each threshold uses, and why the conversion ratio should be agreed before the scheme is fixed.
Side extension setback and the subordination test
The Order limits a side extension to half the width of the original house and one storey. The setback from the front wall is a design convention, and it is usually what decides the application.
Dewatering a basement excavation and the consents needed
Pumping groundwater out of a basement dig engages three regulators at once. Only one of them sits inside the planning application, and the abstraction licence usually drives the programme.
Floodlighting a sports pitch: assessment and curfews
Floodlight applications turn on measurable numbers: lux at the nearest windows, upward light from the luminaires and the hour the lights go off. Weak conditions serve nobody.
Root ingress into drains and the evidence councils accept
Roots enter drains through existing defects, which is why a blockage on its own will not win consent to fell a protected tree. Here is the evidence a tree officer actually reads.
Front boundary walls in conservation areas
Demolishing a front wall in a conservation area is only outside the definition of development below 1 metre next to a vehicular highway. Above that, it is relevant demolition and needs permission.
Counting units where an existing dwelling is demolished
Demolish and rebuild, and gross and net unit counts stop agreeing. Here is which figure the major development test, affordable housing policy, the Community Infrastructure Levy and the biodiversity gain condition each rely on.
Matching roof pitch and eaves on a rear extension
Roof pitch only has to match under permitted development where the rear extension has more than one storey. Eaves height is the limit that catches most schemes, and the arithmetic is worth doing before anything is drawn.
Highway drainage: gullies, connections and who maintains
Highway drainage has its own owner, approval route and maintenance liability. The join with the site strategy is where adoption disputes start.
Conservation area boundary reviews and de-designation
Boundary reviews change what neighbours can build without permission. The evidence that shifts a line is dated photographs and survival surveys, not general appeal.
Hedgehog gaps and connectivity conditions
Connectivity conditions fail at handover, not at construction. The fix is in the gravel board detail, the estate management plan and the homeowner pack.
Splitting a site to stay under a threshold, and why it fails
Authorities assess related applications as one scheme, screen the whole project and apply the combined requirements. Declared phasing delivers the cash flow lawfully.
Sky glow, light trespass and glare as separate metrics
Upward light ratio, vertical illuminance, luminous intensity and building luminance each have their own unit, limit and fix. One number is not an assessment.
Ash dieback and protected ash trees on a site
A declining ash is still protected until it is dead. Assessment, consent route, wildlife checks and the automatic replanting duty all have to be handled in order.
School access: drop-off, school streets and restrictions
The period that decides whether a school works is the quarter hour either side of the bell. Survey that, not the network peak, or the assessment misses the point.
Tall buildings and strategic view assessment
Strategic view assessment for a tall building has to move from visibility to significance. View selection and image methodology decide whether it holds up.
Which mixed use buildings need an Article 9A fire statement
The Article 9A duty depends on whether a podium scheme is one building or several, and on a height condition measured to the top storey of the whole building.
Emissions standards for biomass and combined heat and power
Combustion plant is assessed twice: once for carbon and once for what leaves the flue. Biomass and gas engines often pass the first test and fail the second.
The duty to consult before felling a street tree
The Environment Act 2021 duty requires highway authorities to consult before felling street trees, with exemptions that are where most disputes start.
Accessible parking: dimensions, numbers and distances
Accessible bay dimensions, the access zones beside and behind them, and the route to the entrance decide whether the provision works in use.
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