PlanScope Blog – Page 184
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 184
9313 articlesStrategic gaps and green wedges between settlements
Gap policies come from the local plan, not national policy, so the test is harm to the function of the gap rather than very special circumstances.
Vehicle repair workshops: use class and spray booths
Repair and servicing sit outside Class E, vehicle sales and breaking are sui generis, and respraying needs a permit from the same council through another team.
Reading reasons for refusal and what each one demands
A notice with four reasons usually has one that decides everything. Sort them by whether they attack the principle or the detail before spending anything.
What a sustainability statement adds to an energy statement
The two documents overlap at one point only. Keep carbon modelling in the energy statement and let the sustainability statement carry water, materials, waste and resilience.
When odour modelling is needed and what it involves
Most odour cases are settled on screening and a specified abatement system. Here is when dispersion modelling is warranted, and what it costs in time and evidence.
Evidence a council needs before approving ash removal
Ash dieback alone does not justify felling a protected tree. Councils want crown decline scored against a stated system, the target beneath, and the alternatives considered.
What daylight modelling outputs to submit
Most daylight reports fail because they cannot be checked. Here are the outputs, tables and appendices that stop a further information request.
Flood Zone 3b: what can be built in the functional floodplain
The 3a and 3b split comes from the council's strategic flood risk assessment, not the Environment Agency map. That is where most of the argument lives.
Site allocations: what an allocation does and does not grant
Allocation gives you section 38(6) on principle and nothing on detail. The refusals come from site-specific requirements, access and constraints the policy never resolved.
Mobile catering on private land: when permission is needed
The 28 day right counts days of use across the whole calendar year. Decking, gas cages and a fixed sign push a pitch into operational development.
CIBSE TM59 overheating assessment for residential
TM59 asks a dwelling to pass two criteria, and the bedroom night-time test catches most schemes first. Here is what governs the result.
BS 4142 rating level and acoustic feature corrections
Rating level equals specific sound level plus character corrections. Most review failures come from the corrections and from how the background level was chosen.
Answering a tree officer objection to a layout
A tree officer objection is a design brief. Sort it into facts to check, judgements to argue and requirements to meet, then answer each in its own currency.
Sunlight to school playgrounds and play space
The BRE open space test asks for two hours of sunlight over half the area on 21 March. For a playground, the hours that matter are break and lunch.
Climate change allowances for peak river flow in an FRA
The allowance you must assess depends on river basin district, management catchment, development lifetime and vulnerability class. Here is how to select and present it.
Areas of archaeological importance under the 1979 Act
Inside Canterbury, Chester, Exeter, Hereford or York, disturbing the ground needs an operations notice six weeks in advance, whether or not planning permission is required.
Pharmacy relocation within a parade: what needs consent
A move within Class E needs no permission, yet a single restrictive condition, an air conditioning condenser or an illuminated fascia can still require an application.
Judicial review or appeal: which route for which defect
A merits disagreement belongs at appeal. An unlawful decision belongs in the Planning Court, within six weeks. Here is how to tell which you have.
Inquiry appeals: proofs, statements and the timetable
An inquiry is the only appeal procedure where evidence is tested by cross-examination, and that single feature drives the documents, the deadlines and the cost.
What an arboricultural impact assessment adds to a survey
The survey can be done before you have a design. The impact assessment cannot. Commission them in the wrong order and you pay for the second one twice.
Traffic counts in neutral months and survey validity
Neutral period surveys exist so the baseline reflects an ordinary week. Agreeing the dates with the highway authority before surveying is the best value hour on the job.
Discharging a drainage strategy condition
A surface water condition is usually a condition precedent. Starting before it is discharged can mean the permission was never lawfully implemented.
Reconciling daylight with solar gain in glazing design
The resolution is not a compromise on glazing area. It is glass selectivity, shading geometry, room depth and window head height, all set at concept stage.
Deep peat and the planning constraints on peat soils
Peat is treated as a carbon store first and a soil second. The constraint follows the hydrology rather than the red line, so a drain outside the peat can still dry it.
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