PlanScope Blog – Page 223
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 223
9210 articlesApplying the climate change allowances tables correctly
The Environment Agency publishes climate change allowances by catchment, epoch and percentile. Choosing the wrong combination is one of the most common reasons a flood risk assessment gets returned.
When no planning fee is payable
The fee regulations exempt several categories of application entirely. Knowing which ones apply saves money on exactly the applications landlords and investors submit most often.
Section 106 monitoring fee or an administration charge
Councils can charge for monitoring planning obligations under a power added to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 in 2020. The legal costs of drafting the deed are a separate, contractual matter.
Using published statistics to support a needs case
A statistic with no dataset name, geography or release date carries no weight. How to select, caveat and cite published data in a planning submission.
Outline application fees and the site area bands
Outline fees run on hectares with part units rounded up, while full applications are charged per dwelling. How the bands work and where the red line changes the sum.
Space standard or local minimum unit sizes: which binds
Three possible answers on any site: the adopted local figure, the national standard, or the permitted development requirement. How to find which one binds.
Fire statements for a mixed use podium scheme
A podium scheme is two buildings sharing a base. Separating escape, getting an appliance to the deck, coordinating smoke control and setting out management duties.
Overshadowing from trees rather than buildings
There is no right to light from a tree. How the high hedges regime works, where tree shading is material in planning, and which remedies are realistic.
Metering and monitoring commitments in an energy strategy
Monitoring conditions are discharged with meters, not paragraphs. The metering decisions taken at design stage, who reports afterwards, and what the data has to show.
Road traffic noise assessment for a new housing site
Layout does more for road traffic noise than glazing ever will. Establishing the traffic case, calculating facade levels and presenting results an officer can check.
Using rural land parcel data for an agricultural site
Parcel references, digitised boundaries and recorded hectares are good evidence of physical extent and agricultural use, and poor evidence of ownership.
Tree replacement notice or an enforcement notice
A tree replacement notice enforces the duty to replant under section 206. An enforcement notice remedies a breach of planning control. Which applies, and what to do.
The 21 day consultation period and how it runs
Twenty-one days from the site notice, not from registration. How publicity works, what happens to late comments, and when amended plans trigger re-consultation.
What a conservation officer checks in a heritage statement
Conservation officers test whether significance is tracked through to an effect. How to describe significance by element, state the level of harm and apply the statutory duties.
Firefighting shafts and their effect on core planning
A firefighting shaft is a stair, lobbies at every level and a firefighting lift. How that assembly reshapes a residential core, the plan and the unit mix.
Daylight to a basement flat served by a lightwell
In a basement conversion the lightwell sets the daylight result, not the building opposite. Geometry, finishes, grilles and the layout moves that work when a test fails.
Overheating risk in a retrofit: why the answer changes
Insulation and airtightness change a house in summer as well as winter. Screening the rooms at risk, the ventilation and shading options that survive an existing plan form.
Planning control and licensing control of venue noise
A premises licence until 1am does not override a planning condition closing you at 11pm. How the two noise regimes differ, and how to align them with evidence.
Producing a location plan the council will validate
Location plans cause more invalidations than reports. The national requirement, the conventions every authority applies, and the five checks to run before uploading.
Hazardous substances consent or an environmental permit
Hazardous substances consent and environmental permitting regulate different things. Thresholds, consultation zones, regulators and the sequence that avoids delay.
Writing a planning objection a case officer can use
Objections succeed when each point names a policy and a harm the officer can record. A practical structure, the evidence that counts and what gets ignored.
Using a draft to answer a validation checklist
Most applications are returned for clerical reasons. Build the document schedule from the authority's current local list first, then draft against it.
Phasing a survey budget across two financial years
Survey windows do not follow the financial year. How to decide what to commit before 31 March, stage instructions against gates, and price a missed window honestly.
Trees, subsidence and the evidence a council will accept
A council will not consent to felling a protected tree because an insurer asked. What the structural and arboricultural evidence has to prove, and which engineering options retain the tree.
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