PlanScope Blog – Page 213
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 213
9228 articlesSub-consultants and where liability sits
Liability for a sub-contracted planning report follows the contract, not the letterhead. Here is how appointment structures, warranties, novation and insurance decide who you can actually claim against.
Prior approval fees and what they buy
A prior approval fee buys a determination of prescribed matters, not a planning permission. Here is what it covers, where refunds and deemed consent apply, and how to budget a multi-stage route.
Budgeting utility connections and diversions
Connection and diversion charges are the line in a self-build budget most often wrong. Here is what to ask each undertaker, when to ask it, and how the legal work fits the programme.
Checklist: submission for discharging a drainage condition
Discharge applications fail because they answer the drainage question rather than the condition. Here is a limb-by-limb checklist of what a lead local flood authority expects to see.
Pre-redevelopment audit content for material reuse
A pre-redevelopment audit quantifies what is in the existing buildings and says where each material will go. Here is what to record, when to survey and how the evidence links to a circular economy case.
Floodlighting a school sports pitch
School floodlights need planning permission in almost every case, and playing field land triggers statutory consultation. Here is how the lighting is assessed and which conditions follow.
Documents for a dwelling containing a known bat roost
A confirmed bat roost fixes the programme: survey season, then planning permission, then a licence, then works. Here are the documents each stage needs and who has to hold the licence.
Reserved matters: the five and what they cover
Reserved matters are access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale. Here is what each covers, the statutory deadlines, and where a reserved matters submission strays outside the outline permission.
Community right to bid and assets of community value
Listing an asset of community value buys a community group time to prepare a bid. It does not create a right to buy. Here is how the moratorium runs and what listing means for a planning application.
Veteran trees outside woodland: finding and protecting them
A veteran tree is protected by the irreplaceable habitat test in national policy, not by a Tree Preservation Order. Here is how to identify one, set the buffer and design a layout around it.
Temporary uses, meanwhile space and the risk of permanence
Temporary uses run either on day-limited permitted development rights or on a time-limited permission. Both need a deliberate exit, or the temporary use becomes the lawful one.
When an independent peer review is worth paying for
An independent review pays for itself when the cost of the report being wrong exceeds the review fee and there is still time to act. Here is how to scope one and use the findings.
Disputed boundaries and permitted development measurements
Several permitted development limits turn on being more than 2 metres from a boundary, but a registered title plan shows a general boundary only. Here is how to establish the line before you build.
Budgeting a noise survey and its monitoring period
The length of the monitoring period sets the fee for a noise survey more than anything else. Here is how to work out what you need before asking an acoustician to quote.
Setting a mirror image baseline in a daylight assessment
The mirror image baseline compares a scheme against a contextual form rather than an under-developed site. Here is how to set the models up, report the results and answer the standard criticisms.
Rooftop telecoms equipment on a commercial building
Rooftop antennas for a network operator usually run through Part 16 prior approval, where the council decides siting and appearance only. Here is what that covers and what the lease has to deal with.
Which reports a scheme in an Archaeological Priority Area needs
An Archaeological Priority Area sets the order of work: desk-based assessment, then field evaluation if potential is found, then a written scheme of investigation for agreed mitigation.
Health determinants inside a health impact assessment
A health impact assessment only works if the determinants are ones your scheme can actually move. Here is how to screen, choose determinants, build a baseline and report findings for a planning committee.
The six tests a planning condition has to meet
A planning condition must be necessary, relevant to planning, relevant to the development, enforceable, precise and reasonable. Here is what each test means in practice and how to remove a condition that fails one.
Economic impact assessment outline: rural employment scheme
The assessment is judged on its assumptions, not its conclusions. Eight short sections that let an officer attach weight to the economic case.
Creating a natural burial ground on farmland
A natural burial ground is decided on hydrogeology before landscape. What to test first, and how the usable area is usually smaller than the field.
Documents for a site crossed by a public sewer
A public sewer imposes a consenting process that runs alongside planning on its own timetable. What to order, what to show and when to start the agreement.
Access and inclusion in an equalities impact assessment
The assessment is evidence for the decision maker, not a description of your building. How to write the access and inclusion content so it can be quoted.
Drainage and flooding concerns raised by neighbours
Existing flooding is not by itself a reason to refuse. How to connect local evidence to the effect the development will actually cause.
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