PlanScope Blog – Page 180
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 180
9320 articlesAdding storeys under Class AA: structural feasibility first
Prior approval for additional storeys does not test structural capacity. Appraise the frame, the foundations and the escape route before the price is agreed, not after.
Objecting on daylight grounds: evidence that carries weight
Loss of light to a habitable room is material; loss of a view is not. Here is how to check the applicant's daylight assumptions about your rooms and write an objection an officer can act on.
Retrofitting flats: fabric works and consents
A flat is not a dwellinghouse for permitted development purposes, so external retrofit work needs permission. Here is what each consent covers and how to sequence them.
Noise conditions: workable limits and verification
Most noise conditions cannot be measured, which makes them unenforceable. Here is the wording that works, and the verification structure that turns a paper limit into a real one.
Water quality treatment for surface water runoff
Attenuation volume says nothing about water quality. Here is how pollution hazard and mitigation indices set the treatment train, sub-catchment by sub-catchment.
Indexation, interest and late payment in obligations
Indexation in a planning obligation is contractual, not statutory. Here are the index choices, base date conventions, interest provisions and drafting errors that decide what a developer actually pays.
Dissolution features: chalk, gypsum and unstable ground
Solution pipes, sinkholes and gypsum collapse are localised hazards that a borehole grid will miss. Here is how to investigate them, and why the drainage strategy has to change.
Daylight in existing rooms you cannot get inside
Access to a neighbour's rooms is often refused. Here is which daylight metrics still stand on external survey alone, where to find layout evidence, and how to record and test the assumptions.
Battery storage on a development site
Fire separation and night-time noise shape a battery storage application more than the energy case does. Here is how to site the enclosure, assess the plant and evidence the fire position.
Biomass and CHP flue height: dispersion and design
Calculate the flue before you draw it. Here is how dispersion, building wake and the Clean Air Act 1993 thresholds set chimney height for biomass and combined heat and power plant.
Requesting sewer flooding records from the undertaker
Sewer flooding records come from the undertaker, not the council. Here is what a pre-development enquiry returns, how accurate the asset plans are, and how to write the response into an FRA.
Employment and training obligations in a section 106
Employment and skills obligations commit a developer to apprenticeships, local labour and training. Here is how they are tested under regulation 122 and why so many end in a default payment.
When a geotechnical investigation is needed for planning
Most small schemes need no ground investigation for planning. Mining legacy, made ground, sloping sites, shrinkable clay and infiltration drainage are the triggers that change that.
Reassessing daylight after a design change
Not every revision needs the daylight model rerun. Here is how to decide between an addendum and a reissue, and what a section 73 amenity condition obliges the new assessment to address.
Overshading and solar access for photovoltaic arrays
Photovoltaic yields quoted without a shading factor are the weakest number in most energy statements. Here is how to model overshading, space rows on a flat roof and evidence the figure you submit.
When an air quality assessment is triggered
No floorspace figure triggers an air quality assessment. Traffic change, combustion plant, new receptors in poor air quality and construction dust do. Here is how to screen a scheme before commissioning modelling.
FEH13 rainfall against older depth curves in drainage design
The rainfall dataset behind a drainage design changes the storage volume required. Here is what separates the current FEH model from FEH99 and the older Flood Studies Report curves, and how to evidence the choice.
Loss of light refusals and the tests inspectors use
A loss of light refusal usually rests on a 45 degree line from a neighbour's window plus a view about dominance. Here is where those tests come from and what to draw before you appeal.
Overdevelopment refusals and the evidence that answers them
Overdevelopment is shorthand for breaches of adopted standards on density, amenity space, internal area and parking. Measure each one before you decide whether to redesign the scheme or appeal it.
Design refusals and how inspectors weigh a design code
A design reason for refusal stands or falls on the development plan. Here is how inspectors weigh adopted design codes against supplementary documents, and the context evidence that answers a character allegation.
Refused for insufficient information: how to recover
A refusal for insufficient information is a procedural failure, not a verdict on the design. Here is how to tell which kind you have, and whether a fee-exempt second application or an appeal is the faster route.
Assessing an existing factory against proposed homes
Survey a factory for a week and you measure a quiet fortnight. The assessment has to be built on what the operator may lawfully do, not what it happens to be doing now.
Proving no increase in flood risk to third parties
The burden sits with the applicant. Comparable baseline and proposed runs, difference plots at named receptors and proper sensitivity testing are what satisfy the test.
When the Inspectorate allocates a hearing instead
The Inspectorate chooses the procedure, not the appellant. Hearings suit disputes about interpretation and design where no cross-examination is needed.
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