PlanScope Blog – Page 21
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 21
9610 articlesClimbing wall planning permission in a warehouse unit
A bouldering or lead climbing centre in a warehouse usually fails on the employment allocation rather than the use. Here is the evidence that answers the policy objection, plus parking, noise and fire.
Optimum viable use, conservation deficit and enabling development
Optimum viable use is the least harmful viable use, not the most profitable. Here is how a conservation deficit is built, why the purchase price does not count, and how enabling development is tested.
Off-site biodiversity units and the spatial risk multiplier
The statutory metric halves off-site units bought outside your local authority and National Character Area. Here is how the multiplier works, how registration sequences, and what to test in a habitat bank contract.
Reliance letters and duty of care deeds for lenders
A consultant's report is owed to its addressee alone. Here is how reliance letters, duty of care deeds and assignment work, what caps funders accept, and which reports cannot carry reliance at all.
Balconies, decking and the 300mm raised platform rule
Part 1 Class A gives no rights for a veranda, balcony or raised platform above 300 millimetres, which catches most decking. Here is how the height is measured and what the council will expect.
Grampian condition appeals and the reasonable prospects test
A negatively worded condition requiring off-site works is lawful even where delivery looks unlikely, but guidance still asks for reasonable prospects. Here is the evidence that decides those appeals.
Vertical farming planning permission in an industrial unit
Growing crops indoors is horticulture, but agriculture is not a use class and section 55(2)(e) rarely helps a standalone warehouse. Here is how to describe the use and what evidence the council will want.
Reserved matters: the five matters and the section 92 clock
Only five matters can be reserved on an outline permission. Here is what each one covers, the statutory time limits in section 92, and the changes a reserved matters application cannot make.
Business premises to a school or nursery under Class T
Class T is narrow: the destination must be a state-funded school or a registered nursery, and the council may only consider transport, noise, contamination and flood risk.
Statements of common ground and shorter inquiries
Agreed facts remove sitting days. Here is what to put in a statement of common ground, where policy agreement stops, and what to do when the authority will not engage.
Consenting a micro-brewery taproom in a railway arch
Brewing is industrial and a taproom is a drinking establishment in its own right. The evidence that decides these applications is effluent, noise and how a lorry reaches the door.
Strip, map and record against a watching brief
A watching brief costs less per day and moves the risk of discovery onto the construction programme. Strip, map and record buys control. Here is how to choose and how to word the condition.
The de minimis BNG exemption and how it is measured
Both limits must be met, and the measurement is of habitat impacted rather than lost. Compounds, storage areas and new landscaping all count towards the figure.
Writing a scope of works that prevents a dispute
Define outputs rather than activities, write down the survey season and access assumptions, and state how many revision rounds the fee includes. Two pages prevents most arguments.
Permitted development on a flat and what applies
A building containing flats is not a dwellinghouse under the GPDO, so extensions, dormers and outbuildings all need permission. Here is what still counts as permitted development.
Called-in applications and why no appeal follows
Once an application is called in, the Secretary of State decides it and the decision is final. The inquiry is the last chance to argue the planning merits at all.
Permission for a community growing site
Section 55(2)(e) takes agriculture outside the definition of development, so the growing is usually fine. The structures, access and lighting are what need an application.
Documents for an equestrian cross-country course
Keeping horses for recreation is not agriculture, and course building is engineering work. Here is the document list for a cross-country course, driven by land use, earthworks and horsebox access.
Designing an archaeological trial trenching evaluation
The sample percentage is a convention, not a national standard. What decides whether an evaluation works is trench layout, the relationship to geophysics, and whether it can be dug at all.
Who can carry out an archaeological field evaluation
An archaeological condition requires a written scheme of investigation approved by the council, delivered by a registered organisation with accredited staff. Here is how to check and brief one.
The self-build and custom build BNG exemption
Three conditions have to be met for the self-build exemption from the biodiversity gain condition, and the exclusivity test is the one that fails. Here is what councils now ask for.
Checking whether an Article 4 direction affects your plot
An Article 4 direction withdraws named permitted development classes from a defined area. Reading the direction itself, not just the council map layer, is the only reliable check.
Split and partial decisions on hybrid applications
Section 79(1) lets an inspector redetermine the whole application, so appealing a hybrid refusal puts the detailed element back in play. Here is how to structure the scheme instead.
Permission for a holiday let in an outbuilding
Holiday accommodation is not a C3 dwelling, so a converted outbuilding needs permission and usually carries an occupancy condition. Here is what the application has to prove.
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