PlanScope Blog – Page 204
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 204
9243 articlesPrivacy distances and where the separation rules come from
Separation distances come from council design guides, not from statute. How the familiar figures work, why balconies are treated differently, and what makes an overlooking objection land.
Pre-demolition audits and circular economy statements
An audit produced after the demolition contractor is appointed cannot change anything. What to record element by element, how to express targets and what to report afterwards.
Vibration from railways and the assessment thresholds
Two effects from one source: vibration people feel and the rumble they hear. How the dose value method works, what to measure on an empty site and when the answer is to change the use.
Trees and archaeology: where the two constraints meet
Root protection says do not dig; archaeology says characterise the deposits. How to resolve the conflict through geophysics, supervised test pits and a single joint strategy.
Checking a consultant's appeal track record
Decision letters record what an inspector made of each party's evidence. How to search them, which phrases matter, and what an appeal record cannot tell you.
Matching brickwork and mortar on a rear extension
Joints make up nearly a fifth of a brick wall, so the mortar decides the match. How to read the existing brick, get the coursing right and evidence it for a later sale.
Agent of change and protecting a music venue
Agent of change puts the mitigation burden on the party introducing the change. What that means for facade design, structure-borne noise, entrances and the legal mechanisms that follow.
Tree safety inspections and the landowner's duty
The duty is the ordinary duty of care applied to trees. How zoning by occupancy sets the inspection regime, what the record must contain, and why the closed-out action matters most.
Play space assessments and who prepares them
Councils ask for one document and it takes three sets of hands. How child yield is calculated, who designs the space, and which standards govern equipment and inspection.
Daylight in outline applications with parameter plans
A maximum envelope overstates harm to neighbours and understates daylight to the scheme's own units. How to separate the two tests and condition the reserved matters stage.
Energy statement for a conversion where the fabric is fixed
When the envelope cannot change, an energy statement has to document the search rather than report a number. Baselines, measures, constrained roofs and how to justify partial compliance.
Agreeing noise sensitive receptors with the officer
Agree the receptors and measurement positions in writing before monitoring begins. Which candidates to test, how free field and facade positions differ, and what to do when the officer disagrees.
Keeping a protected tree in a new dwelling's garden
The risk to a retained tree in a private garden is not the excavator, it is the householder three years later. How to design and evidence a layout that survives occupation.
Who can sign a construction management plan
No statutory scheme names who writes a construction management plan. Why the timing of the condition makes that awkward, and how to draft commitments a contractor can actually live with.
Sunlight to gardens and amenity space in a scheme layout
The amenity sunlight test is an area test anchored to 21 March. Which spaces it covers, how podium gardens and trees are handled, and the massing decisions that fix the outcome.
Renewables on a rural site with a constrained grid connection
The network operator's answer on capacity sets the deliverable size of a rural renewable scheme. How export limitation, private wire arrangements and storage change what you should apply for.
Lighting design that protects bat commuting routes
A dark corridor is a designed element of a layout, not an absence of one. How to set a light level target at the retained feature and evidence it in the modelling.
Emergency tree works and evidencing an immediate risk
The exemption for urgent tree works is judged after the event, and the burden sits with whoever did the cutting. What to photograph, what to write down and when notice is due.
Drainage engineer competence for a drainage strategy
There is no statutory competent person scheme for drainage design. What the lead local flood authority reviews, and the questions to ask an engineer before appointing them.
Room use evidence and which windows an assessment must cover
A vertical sky component figure means nothing until you know what room sits behind the window. How to evidence room use, deal with refused access and present a defensible window schedule.
Green roof specification and what counts as urban greening
A roof specified as biodiverse with 60mm of medium will not behave like one. How substrate depth, structural load and access shape a green roof specification, and how greening scores treat sedum mat.
ICNIRP declarations for telecoms masts and who signs them
The radio frequency declaration that accompanies a telecoms prior approval application comes from the operator's radio planning team. What it covers, what it does not, and the four checks to run before submission.
Kitchen extraction: stack height, discharge and odour control
Terminating a metre above the ridge at the right efflux velocity does more for an odour case than any filter. What environmental health officers look for in a commercial kitchen extraction scheme.
Routing services through a root protection area
A machine-dug trench across a root protection area is not an option. What BS 5837:2012 expects instead, where trenchless installation stops working, and what the method statement has to say.
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