PlanScope Blog – Page 17
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 17
9615 articlesThe duty to give reasons on a planning decision notice
Article 35 requires full, precise reasons for a refusal and for each condition. There is no equivalent duty for a grant, which is why challenges to approvals run on common law grounds.
Section 278 agreements and what the highway authority wants
A section 278 agreement sits outside the planning permission and needs full detailed design, audits, a bond and fees. It is the programme item most likely to slip.
The two retail impact tests on vitality and investment
An out of centre retail proposal above the floorspace threshold faces two distinct impact tests. Merging them in one chapter is how applications lose the argument.
Water neutrality and offsetting in constrained catchments
Water neutrality is an area-wide balance, not a per-dwelling standard. Efficient fittings cut demand, but the residual has to be offset in the existing stock and secured.
Foundation design to minimise archaeological impact
Preservation in situ turns the foundation design into archaeological mitigation. The adviser wants a disturbance percentage, calculated from piles, caps, beams, drainage and temporary works.
How to structure an ecological impact assessment
An ecological impact assessment is judged on whether important features are valued at a stated geographic scale and whether effects are characterised rather than described.
What article 2(3) land removes from householder rights
Conservation areas, National Parks, National Landscapes, the Broads and World Heritage Sites are article 2(3) land, and Schedule 2 strips out several of the most useful householder rights there.
Northern Ireland: flood risk and the drainage consultation
Northern Ireland has no Environment Agency. DfI Rivers advises on flood risk and consents works to designated watercourses, which is a separate approval from planning permission.
Common design tests for basements in London boroughs
Borough basement policies share a short set of numerical tests on depth, extent, garden coverage and soil cover. Knowing them before you design saves a refusal.
A takeaway in a parade: odour, noise and hours
A hot food takeaway is sui generis, so a Class E shop needs full permission. This illustrative walkthrough shows how extraction, odour banding and hours conditions shaped the outcome.
Deemed discharge of conditions and when you can use it
Section 74A lets you treat a condition as discharged by serving a notice, but Schedule 6 removes most of the conditions holding up a start on site.
Dishes, aerials and cabling on listed buildings
Permitted development rights for antennas say nothing about listed building control. How to choose a position, detail the fixings, route the cable and avoid a facade covered in tenants' dishes.
Grassland creation from arable and the establishment risk
Creating species-rich grassland on former arable land looks attractive in the biodiversity metric. Residual soil phosphorus, difficulty multipliers and a 30 year obligation decide whether it is deliverable.
Antennas and satellite dishes under Class H size limits
Class H permits satellite dishes within four limits: number, size, height above the roof, and position on designated land. The installations that fail are usually on chimneys or front elevations.
Wales: where building regulations diverge from England
Building regulations for buildings in Wales have been devolved since the end of 2011, and the two sets of Approved Documents now differ on energy, fire suppression and drainage. The differences that change a design.
Drafting a late stage viability review in London
In London a late stage viability review is the price of the viability tested route. The money sits in four definitions: the trigger, the fixed inputs, the surplus and the cap.
Reading a council's scheme of delegation before you apply
A council's scheme of delegation sets out which applications go to committee and which an officer decides. Reading it before you submit tells you the decision route, the call-in deadline and the real timetable.
Reading a CIL charging schedule and working out liability
A charging schedule calculation has four inputs: the rate, the chargeable area and two index figures. The area is where offsets, measurement conventions and exemptions all do their work.
The three statutory tests a section 106 obligation must meet
Regulation 122 of the CIL Regulations 2010 makes the three obligation tests statutory, so an obligation that fails a limb cannot be a reason for granting permission. How to evidence each one, and how to challenge a contribution request.
Pumped surface water drainage and when councils accept it
Pumping is not a tier in the drainage hierarchy, it is what you do when levels rule out every tier. What a lead local flood authority expects to see before accepting a pumped surface water system.
Painting unpainted brickwork: when consent is needed
Class C permits painting the exterior of any building, including in conservation areas. Listed building consent and Article 4 directions are the exceptions, and the wrong paint on a solid wall causes damage that is hard to undo.
Priority habitat inventory errors and ground-truthing
A priority habitat polygon is a prompt to survey, not a finding of fact. How inventory errors arise, what ground-truthing an officer will accept, and the consequences for the metric baseline and irreplaceable habitat claims.
Flues and chimneys under Class G and the one metre rule
A wood burner flue is permitted development under Class G if it stays under one metre above the highest part of the roof. How the measurement works, and the narrower restriction that applies on designated land.
Infrastructure contributions in Wales, and how England differs
The Community Infrastructure Levy applies in Wales, but the English amendments made since 2010 largely do not. What that means for pooling, monitoring fees, affordable housing and the contributions budget on a Welsh scheme.
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