PlanScope Blog – Page 168
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 168
9340 articlesBarn owl mitigation in a rural building conversion
A nesting barn owl stops a barn conversion until the young fledge. The survey can be done at any time of year, and the mitigation is usually a partition and a hatch, provided you find out early enough.
Committee determination or a delegated decision
Whether an application is decided by an officer or by elected members turns on one published document, the council's scheme of delegation. Here is how to read it, and how the call-in and speaking deadlines work.
Which reports an equestrian use in the Green Belt needs
Keeping horses is not agriculture, so none of the shortcuts open to a working farm apply. Here is the report pack a Green Belt equestrian application usually needs, and why the pack is larger than owners expect.
Water neutrality evidence in a water supply assessment
Water neutrality means total use in a supply area is no higher after your scheme is occupied than before. The evidence has two halves: a defensible demand calculation and a secured offset.
Swept path analysis and what it proves
A tracking drawing proves that a stated design vehicle can complete a stated movement on the geometry drawn. It does not prove the access is safe, and the difference is where most highway objections start.
Invasive species on site and the Schedule 9 duty
Having knotweed is not an offence, but causing it to spread is. Here is what Schedule 9 prohibits, how the waste rules bite when soil leaves the site, and what a management plan has to contain.
Listed building consent orders and local orders
Consent orders grant listed building consent for described works without an application. Here is the difference between national and local orders, what they typically cover, and how to check one applies.
Lighting designers and the guidance a council will cite
Councils assess external lighting against obtrusive light guidance and environmental zones. Here is the competence to brief for, what a complete photometric submission contains, and where supplier layouts fall short.
Measuring the volume allowance for a loft dormer
Class B allows 40 cubic metres of added roof space on a terrace house and 50 on anything else, measured outside the structure. Earlier roof additions count, including ones a previous owner built.
Whole life carbon modules C and D at end of life
Module C is the carbon of taking a building apart. Module D is the benefit claimed beyond the system boundary. Here is how to assess both and why a net figure is not a reportable output.
Greenfield runoff rate: comparing the accepted methods
Two accepted methods applied to the same field can differ by a factor of two on a small site. Here is what drives the difference, how the 50 hectare scaling works, and how to present it.
Ground source heat pump boreholes in a protection zone
In a groundwater Source Protection Zone the constraint on a borehole heat pump is not planning but the Environment Agency's groundwater position. Here is what governs the design and the consents.
Asset of community value or local heritage listing
Community value listing buys time to bid when a building is sold. Local heritage listing gives it weight when an application arrives. Different tests, different teams, and no conflict in doing both.
Reports for a livestock building on a working farm
A livestock building on a holding of five hectares or more may need only a Part 6 prior notification. The 400 metre rule decides most schemes, and the evidence that follows depends on where the building can sit.
Servicing and deliveries in a transport statement
Servicing produces more highway objections on small commercial applications than parking does. Here is how to choose the design vehicle, draw the swept paths and handle refuse and delivery hours.
Trip rates and the TRICS database
A trip rate is trips per unit of development per period, and the figure you quote depends on which surveyed sites you averaged. Here is how selection works and what a highway authority checks.
Heritage partnership agreements and what they simplify
A heritage partnership agreement can pre-authorise recurring repairs to listed buildings across an estate. Here is what it can and cannot grant, the significance work it rests on, and why so few exist.
Water vole displacement and the licence position
Water voles carry full protection under Schedule 5 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Displacement works only on short lengths, in narrow windows, and only where the licence position has been settled in writing.
CIfA registered organisations and what registration means
CIfA registration is a corporate accreditation against published standards, and it is what most archaeological conditions mean by a suitably qualified contractor. Here is what it covers and what to check.
Householder permitted development in a conservation area
In a conservation area householder permitted development shrinks rather than disappears. Here is exactly what article 2(3) land removes, what survives, and how an Article 4 direction goes further.
Whole life carbon module B and replacement cycles
Module B is driven by two assumptions rather than measurements: component service life and the reference study period. Here is how to set both, and how to report them so a reviewer can test the result.
Culvert capacity and trash screen design on a small site
A culverted watercourse on a small site raises two questions: can it carry the design flow with climate change added, and who will clean the screen. Here is how to answer both.
When two designations overlap, which test governs
On a site with several designations the order you take the tests in changes the planning balance. Statutory gateways first, statutory duties next, policy tests after, section 38(6) last.
Farm diversification and the fallback position argument
A fallback position compares your proposal with what could lawfully happen anyway. Here is how the real prospect test works on a farm holding, what evidence carries it, and where the argument collapses.
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