PlanScope Blog – Page 181
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 181
9318 articlesSubmitting a daylight model: files, assumptions and checks
Peer review stalls on missing information, not on disagreement. Here is the file set, the assumptions and the version control a reviewer needs to reproduce your result.
Concrete, steel and timber: the structural carbon choice
The structural frame and substructure carry most of a building's upfront carbon, and ground conditions can invert the ranking. How to build a comparison that survives review.
Road traffic noise and when a barrier is justified
A barrier only works where it breaks the line of sight, which rules out most upper-floor bedrooms. Layout, orientation and envelope design usually do more than any fence.
Tree surveys for demolition-only proposals
Prior approval for demolition covers method and restoration only, and gives no authority over protected trees. Scaffold, hoarding and plant positions are where the damage happens.
Vortex flow controls and minimum orifice size limits
A 2 litre per second orifice is about 28mm across and will block. How vortex flow controls work, what minimum discharge rates authorities set, and the effect on storage volume.
Pupil yield and the education contribution calculation
Education contributions come from pupil yield multipliers applied to dwelling mix and a cost per place. The mix, the school capacity evidence and the statutory tests are where to push.
Party wall procedure against planning for basements
Planning and party wall are separate regimes with separate rights. Permission does not authorise excavation, and section 6 notices need at least a month before work starts.
Urban context: daylight reductions inspectors accept
Inspectors do accept daylight below BRE 209 guideline values in dense areas, but only where the prevailing local condition is evidenced and the residual harm is quantified honestly.
Post-occupancy energy monitoring conditions
Monitoring conditions commit you to metering, data collection and a report for several years after occupation. Design the metering in at planning stage or the condition cannot be discharged.
Drive-through restaurants: noise, odour and idling
Order point noise, kitchen odour and queuing emissions decide a drive-through application. Here is what the environmental health officer looks for and which conditions to offer.
Section 73 applications and their effect on levy liability
A section 73 grants a new permission, so Community Infrastructure Levy liability is recalculated using current rates and index figures, with credit for the permission it replaces.
When a planning condition and a TPO consent conflict
A permission exempts only the tree works necessary to implement a full consent. Scaffold, access and crane oversail are usually outside it, and a retention condition overrides everything.
Tidal locking and what it does to an outfall design
On an estuary frontage a gravity outfall is shut for hours each tide. The locked duration sets the storage volume, the critical rainfall duration and whether a pump is needed.
Hydrogeology for a basement: screening the flow path
Basement screening is a groundwater question first. Unknown counts as yes, so each screening answer needs a cited source and every scoped pathway needs measured data.
Average daylight factor targets for new flats
Kitchens 2 per cent, living rooms 1.5 per cent, bedrooms 1 per cent. How those average daylight factor targets work, how BS EN 17037 differs, and what actually causes failures.
Noise and cooling from an electric vehicle charging hub
The noise objection to a charging hub comes from the transformer and the cooling fans, not the cars. Here is how BS 4142 treats tonal plant and which mitigation earns its place.
Unregulated energy and why it is left out
Part L compliance covers regulated energy only. Unregulated appliance and small power loads sit outside it, and mixing the two up distorts offset payments and reduction claims.
Trees on allocated sites: getting the plan stage right
Local plan capacity figures are derived from gross area and density, so treed sites get allocated for numbers they cannot deliver. Survey at Regulation 18 stage, not after allocation.
Wave overtopping on a tidal frontage and freeboard
On a tidal frontage the design flood level is the still water level plus the wave component. Here is how overtopping discharge is calculated and how freeboard follows from it.
Varying a section 106 agreement after permission
A deed of variation can change a section 106 agreement at any time if the council agrees. The statutory application route under section 106A(3) only opens after five years.
Self-build levy exemption and the three-year clawback
Two forms at two separate moments, one before work starts and one within six months of completion, then a three-year occupation condition with no discretion.
Smoke control areas and solid fuel stoves
A stove can be lawful to install and unlawful to burn ordinary wood in. The Clean Air Act rules and the planning rules are separate regimes with separate tests.
Vertical sky component: how the 27 per cent test works
A window only falls short of the guidance where the proposed value is below 27 per cent and also below 0.8 times the existing value. Both limbs have to fail.
Change of use applications and when an FRA is still needed
The same water in the same building matters more when people sleep in it. Vulnerability classification, not physical works, decides which flood tests apply.
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