PlanScope Blog – Page 187
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 187
9307 articlesA validation self-check before you press submit
Most invalid applications fail on four things: the fee, the certificate, a missing drawing and a description that does not match the plans. Check them in this order.
Grade I and II applications and national consultation
Works to a Grade I or II building bring a statutory consultee and, if the council disagrees with it, a referral to the Secretary of State. Plan the submission around that.
The daylight penalty balconies impose on the room behind
An inset balcony is often the reason a living room fails its daylight target. Model it properly, then decide whether the amenity space is worth the room behind it.
Reservoir inundation zones and what planners expect
A site can sit in Flood Zone 1 and still be inside a reservoir inundation area. The assessment does not raise floor levels, it plans the evacuation.
Drainage for a change of use with no new hard surface
A change of use with no external works cannot increase surface water run-off. Officers still ask for a drainage strategy, so answer the question they should have asked about foul flows.
Nine units against ten and the affordable housing line
The tenth home moves a scheme into major development and into affordable housing policy. Whether nine is the better scheme depends on more than the contribution.
Ownership certificates A to D: a decision checklist
Signing Certificate A when someone else owns part of the site is the quiet mistake that undoes a permission. Work through the checks before you tick the box.
Evidence base for a caravan and camping site
A campsite in open countryside is a change of use with a licensing regime attached. Here is the evidence that carries the planning case and the order to do it in.
Refuse vehicle swept paths and bin carry distances
The refuse vehicle sets the geometry of a residential layout more often than the car does. Get the carry distances and the swept path right before the plots are arranged.
Shopfronts on listed buildings and advertisement consent
Signage on a listed shop is two applications, not one. Getting the fascia, lettering and illumination right before you apply saves a refusal and an enforcement letter.
Daylight inside single aspect north facing flats
A north facing single aspect flat cannot pass a sunlight test, because the test does not apply to it. The daylight case has to be made on illuminance, room depth and honest reporting.
Evidence base for a telecoms mast under Part 16
Prior approval for a mobile mast is decided on siting and appearance alone. Here is the evidence that actually moves a Part 16 application, and the 56 day trap.
Unexploded ordnance risk and when a survey is expected
Unexploded ordnance is not a mapped designation, so it surfaces late. A desk study costs days, while a find during piling costs weeks.
Discharge to a highway drain: the authority's position
A road gully looks like the easy answer for surface water. The highway authority owns that pipe for the road, not for your plot, and consent is discretionary.
What changes at fifty dwellings
Fifty homes is where a minor developer's habits stop working. The transport, consultation and infrastructure evidence all steps up, and the programme has to change with it.
A site photograph schedule for a planning appraisal
A numbered photograph schedule with a key plan turns forty phone images into evidence a case officer can use. Here is what to shoot and how to present it.
Detention basins against permanently wet ponds
Only the volume above top water level counts in a wet pond, which is where most submitted strategies go wrong. This compares basins and ponds on attenuation, treatment, safety, land take and maintenance.
One hectare and the automatic flood risk requirement
Zone 1 does not mean no flood risk assessment. At 1 hectare or more the requirement applies automatically, and the document has to deal with surface water rather than with rivers.
A worked parking stress calculation for a conversion
Parking stress is occupancy over capacity. This works through the survey area, how capacity and occupancy are counted differently, the nights that count, and an illustrative calculation for a three-flat conversion.
Why 0.5 hectares matters as much as unit numbers
Major status can be triggered by site area rather than by dwelling count, and access strips, basins and buffers are usually what push a scheme over. Here is how the limbs work and how to draw the red line.
A condition compliance tracker for a consented scheme
A decision notice with 23 conditions is a work programme. Here is how to extract them into a tracker, classify them by trigger, work the dates back from the build programme and hand the continuing ones over.
Public rights of way as a development constraint
A recorded footpath survives planning permission and has to be diverted by a separate order. This covers searching the definitive map and statement, unrecorded claims, layout design and temporary closures.
Swale conveyance capacity against what is drawn
A swale on a layout and a swale that carries the design flow are often different things. This covers the gradient and roughness assumptions, an illustrative capacity calculation, and the checks a reviewer should make.
What to put in a planning application covering letter
The covering letter is read by the validation officer before anyone looks at the scheme. Here is what to put in it, what to keep out, and an illustrative structure that removes most validation queries.
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