PlanScope Blog – Page 210
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 210
9233 articlesA listed place of worship reordering, start to finish
An illustrative reordering of a Grade II church, from the first list of wants to the conditions on the consent, including whether the ecclesiastical exemption applied.
The first month after planning permission: what to do
Permission granted is not permission usable. Work through the decision notice, the conditions triggers, the CIL forms and the material start before the digger arrives.
Twin tracking planning applications: when it works
Running a duplicate application alongside an appeal can buy negotiating room. It can also cost you the free resubmission and invite a refusal to determine.
Class Q barn conversions: qualifying date and limits
Class Q starts with a date. If the building was not in agricultural use on the qualifying date, nothing you do to it afterwards brings it within the class.
How planning fees escalate with unit numbers
Planning fees are charged per dwelling up to 50 units, then on a different basis. Here is the structure, the indexation and the fees people forget.
A self build plot where drainage decided the layout
Three trial pits in February moved the house four metres, reshaped the drive and cost seven weeks. An illustrative walkthrough of drainage setting a layout.
A neighbour consultation letter before you submit
A letter a fortnight before submission gives neighbours the information first and gives you their concerns while the drawings can still move.
Nesting bird checks before vegetation clearance
There is no development exemption for destroying an active nest. The pre-clearance check, and its written record, is what stands between clearance and an offence.
Daylight targets for new rooms and how they are tested
Daylight inside new dwellings is now assessed against illuminance targets rather than daylight factors. Here is how the tests work and what the model has to state.
Source protection zones and development over groundwater
Source protection zones do not prohibit development. They change which activities the Environment Agency will accept, starting with infiltration and piling.
Reading a CV against a validation requirement
Competence in the abstract is not the test. The test is the wording on the local list, and matching a CV against it takes ten minutes.
Dropped kerbs and access under Part 2 Class B
A dropped kerb needs two things checked: whether Class B of Part 2 covers it, and whether the highway authority will consent to the crossing at all.
Determination periods and what sets them
Determination periods follow the scale category of your application. Here is what sets each one, what stops the clock, and how to handle an extension of time.
A farm diversification scheme across three applications
An illustrative walkthrough of a diversification programme delivered through three applications, showing how sequencing built the highways evidence base.
An illustrative worked example of the 45 degree test
The 45 degree test is local guidance rather than national policy. Here is how it is drawn, where councils differ, and a worked illustrative example.
Bat emergence survey effort and roost suitability
The suitability category assigned at the preliminary roost assessment decides how many emergence visits follow, and therefore your programme for the whole season.
Sunlight to gardens and amenity areas on 21 March
Gardens are tested on one date: 21 March. At least half the area should receive two hours of direct sunlight, with a further comparison where an existing garden loses out.
World heritage site buffer zones and development control
Buffer zones are not a statutory designation in England. Control comes from plan policy, national heritage policy and the designations inside the zone.
When a council asks for a chartered structural engineer
Councils ask for chartered structural input when the planning judgement depends on whether a building can be kept, converted or excavated beside safely.
Hard surfaces under Class F and the drainage condition
Paving a front garden is permitted development under Class F, but only if the surface is porous or run-off goes to a permeable area inside your boundary.
Active Travel England and the 150 unit referral
At 150 dwellings, 7,500 square metres of floorspace or five hectares, your application is referred to Active Travel England. Here is what the agency looks for.
A basement under a terraced house in London
An illustrative walkthrough of a single-storey basement under a London mid-terrace, showing where the evidence base went and which conditions followed.
A tree protection plan checklist to BS 5837
A tree protection plan is a scale drawing that has to survive contact with the engineer's layout. Here is what it must show and the checks to run before submission.
What incidental to the enjoyment of a dwellinghouse means
Incidental is the word that decides whether a garden building is permitted development. It is an objective test, and it excludes primary living accommodation however the owner describes it.
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