PlanScope Blog – Page 161
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 161
9354 articlesHighway trees, section 278 works and removal consent
A tree in the verge belongs to the highway authority, and planning permission does not authorise its removal. This covers the consent route, the alternatives officers expect, valuation and replacement planting.
Construction access for abnormal and oversized loads
Abnormal loads move under a separate regime from planning, with its own notification periods and veto points. This covers the thresholds, route survey, structural capacity, closures and escort arrangements.
Waterlogged deposits and palaeoenvironmental evidence
Waterlogged deposits survive only while they stay wet, so dewatering matters as much as excavation. This covers deposit models, sampling strategies, the specialists involved and what a reviewer should check.
Local plan site allocations and their weight
An allocation settles the principle and leaves capacity, access and infrastructure open. This sets out the weight at each plan stage, the requirements written into allocation policies and how departures are judged.
Flood modelling inputs and what they add to a report
Modelling is what separates a few hundred pounds from tens of thousands in a Flood Risk Assessment. This sets out when it is needed, how to reuse Environment Agency data, and the five cost drivers.
Character corrections and the acoustic feature penalty
The acoustic feature correction is the most contested judgement in a plant noise assessment. This sets out the tonality, impulsivity and intermittency corrections, the 9 dB ceiling and how to design the penalty out.
Shading, leaf litter and trees as a material consideration
Officers weigh daylight to proposed rooms and the risk that a retained tree will later be felled. Leaf fall, sap and an existing neighbour's shade belong to other regimes. Here is which is which.
Vehicle crossovers: the application and the specification
A dropped kerb is a highway authority consent under section 184, separate from any planning permission for the access or the hard surface. Here is what each one covers and what the specification demands.
Preservation in situ as a design constraint
Where archaeological remains must stay in the ground, the foundation strategy changes. This looks at piling layouts, rafts, raised levels, dewatering risk and the evaluation evidence an engineer needs.
Air quality assessment triggers for small schemes
Small schemes are screened in by traffic change, new combustion plant or new exposure to existing pollution, not by floorspace. Here are the criteria officers apply and what a proportionate assessment contains.
Party wall surveyors on a basement project
Basement excavation triggers the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 by geometry, not by objection. Here is how the surveyor appointments work, who pays the fees, and what the award will control on site.
First Homes exception sites and their tests
First Homes exception sites deliver discounted market sale housing on unallocated land. The location tests, the discount and cap arithmetic, eligibility and the obligation that makes it work.
How long a BS 5837 tree survey stays valid
Most validation checklists expect a tree survey within the last twelve months. The real test is whether anything material has changed, and on a site with ash that can happen in a season.
Stopping up a highway to allow development
Planning permission does not extinguish a public right of passage. How stopping up orders work, why statutory undertakers object, and why apparatus diversions set the programme.
Wall paintings and finishes discovered during works
A concealed painting changes the consent you are working to. What to do in the first hour, who to tell, why there is no non-material amendment route for listed building consent, and how to price the risk.
Registered common rights and who holds them
The commons register records the land, the rights over it and the owner of the soil. Registered common land cannot be fenced or built on without consent, and none of it shows on the title.
Late stage review mechanisms and what they cost to run
A late stage review reopens the affordable housing contribution once real costs and values are known. The triggers, the inputs to fix at the outset, and the four costs of running one.
Housing trajectory and the five year buffer
The buffer is applied to the requirement, not the supply, so it moves the answer more than almost any other input. How the calculation works and the six points where it is usually contested.
Can a protected tree be felled once permission is granted
Work necessary to implement a full planning permission is exempt from TPO consent. Outline permissions are not covered, necessary is read strictly, and a retention condition takes the exemption away.
Permit-free obligations and how councils enforce them
A permit-free covenant only works where a controlled parking zone exists. How the obligation binds owners and occupiers, how councils enforce it in practice, and the five ways it fails.
Ecclesiastical exemption and what it actually covers
The ecclesiastical exemption removes listed building consent for named denominations, for the church building, while it is in ecclesiastical use. Planning permission is untouched by it.
Waste consultation areas and nearby development
A safeguarded waste facility was there first. What a consultation area requires of a nearby application, the statutory 250 metre trigger, and the layout decisions that make a scheme work.
Bonds and sureties in planning obligations
A section 106 obligation binds the land, but it will not build a play area for an insolvent developer. How bonds and sureties work, what triggers a call and how to draft the release.
De minimis in planning judgments
There is no size below which works stop being development. What section 55 actually says, where real de minimis thresholds exist, and why a Lawful Development Certificate beats an assumption.
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