PlanScope Blog – Page 202
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 202
9247 articlesBiodiversity duties in Wales without a net gain requirement
Schedule 7A to the Environment Act 2021 applies to England. In Wales, biodiversity is handled through the section 6 duty on the decision maker and a net benefit expectation in national policy.
Front extensions and why they are harder than rear ones
Extending forward of the principal elevation almost always needs permission, and the decision turns on the street scene rather than neighbour amenity. Here is how officers apply the building line test.
Green roofs and rainwater on a householder extension
A green roof rarely needs permission in its own right, and the build-up depth can take an extension outside Class A by adding height. Measure to the top of the growing medium, not the deck.
Reflectance assumptions and how they change daylight results
Reflectance has no effect on Vertical Sky Component or the no-sky line, and a strong effect on average daylight factor and climate-based illuminance results. What a reviewer should check, and what evidence a non-standard value needs.
Daylight modelling software outputs and what to include
The test for a daylight appendix is whether a competent third party could rebuild the model and get the same numbers. Most assessments that fail review fail on geometry sources, datum or reporting rather than on the calculation.
Glint and glare assessment for a solar farm
Glint and glare assessment is a geometry exercise that calculates where reflected sunlight lands through the year. Aviation receptors carry the most weight and leave the narrowest mitigation options.
Tonal and impulsive penalties in a BS 4142 assessment
Corrections of up to +6 dB for tonality, +9 dB for impulsivity and +3 dB for intermittency can move a BS 4142 conclusion without anything about the plant changing. What evidence each correction needs.
Flood risk in Wales: TAN 15 and the development advice maps
Technical Advice Note 15 asks what the consequences of flooding would be for occupiers, in depth, velocity and rate of rise, rather than applying the English sequential and exception tests. The Welsh framework has its own zones, consultee and climate allowances.
Air source heat pumps and the conditions attached
An air source heat pump is usually permitted development under Class G of Part 14, and the MCS Planning Standards noise limit of 42 dB(A) at a neighbour's window is what decides where the unit can go.
Turning a pre-application response into a drafted statement
A pre-application response is the best outline your planning statement will get. Sorting it into four categories decides the structure of the submission and the order the arguments come in.
Rights of light contrasted with planning amenity conditions
Rights of light are private easements enforced in the civil courts and are not a material planning consideration. Planning conditions controlling windows are a separate tool, and most of them fail on precision or enforceability.
Post-construction energy verification conditions
Energy verification conditions ask you to prove after construction that the building performs as the approved statement said. What evidence discharges them, and what to do when the as-built figures fall short.
Future Wales and how the national plan applies to your site
Future Wales: The National Plan 2040 is part of the development plan in Wales, not a material consideration like the English framework. What that means for how a planning statement is structured.
Extending a flat above a shop
Part 1 of the GPDO grants householder rights to dwellinghouses, and a flat is not one, so extending a flat above a shop is always a full application. Ownership, escape routes and noise from the use below decide whether it is feasible.
Why a tool cannot tell you your council's validation list
National validation requirements come from a statutory instrument and are knowable. A local list is a document on one council's website, revised when that council decides. That difference sets the limit of what any tool can scope.
Courtyard schemes and daylight to the lower floors
Courtyard daylight is fixed at massing stage by the angle from a lower window to the eaves opposite. What the arithmetic implies for plot width, which units suffer, and how to report the result honestly.
Future proofing claims in an energy statement
Future proofing claims divide into spatial, capacity and behavioural commitments. The first two can be drawn, dimensioned and conditioned. The third usually fails the tests in national guidance on the use of planning conditions.
Measuring light spill at a bedroom window
Vertical illuminance measured in the plane of the glazing, with the source on and off, turns a light nuisance complaint into evidence. What to measure, with what, and what to record alongside it.
Statutory pre-application consultation for major schemes in Wales
The Planning (Wales) Act 2015 makes pre-application consultation a statutory duty for major development in Wales, with a minimum 28-day period and a mandatory report. England has no equivalent requirement.
The consultation period and whether late comments count
The statutory publicity period is a minimum, not a cut-off for material considerations. How the period is set, when a late objection still counts, and what happens once committee papers are published.
Juliet balconies, terraces and overlooking on an extension
Class A excludes any enlargement that includes a balcony, verandah or raised platform above 0.3 metres, so terraces always need permission. A flush Juliet arrangement with no platform can be different.
Confidentiality when uploading site documents to a tool
Most of an application pack becomes public on the statutory register, so the confidentiality question attaches to a narrow set of documents. Which ones, how to redact them, and what a practice policy should say.
Sustainable drainage approval bodies in Wales
Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 is in force in Wales, so construction work of 100m2 or more needs SuDS approval from the SAB before it starts. This is a Wales-only consent with no English equivalent.
Biomass heating and the air quality constraint
Biomass heating proposals are judged on particulate and nitrogen oxide emissions at the flue as much as on carbon savings. Smoke control areas under the Clean Air Act 1993 and nearby Air Quality Management Areas set the evidence burden.
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