PlanScope Blog – Page 230
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 230
9196 articlesConstruction noise and vibration limits under BS 5228
The limits depend on how quiet the area already is. The threshold categories, the gap between felt vibration and damaging vibration, and why prior consent is worth having.
Discharging a tree replacement planting condition
Discharge needs a specification precise enough to enforce and evidence that matches it. The detail officers look for, the planting season trap and the failure clause.
Electric vehicle charging in new residential development
Charge point numbers are now mostly a building regulations matter. What the planning layer still adds, and the decisions that have to be made before the slab is poured.
Recording a building before demolition or conversion
The condition bites before any works start. How the recording levels differ, what a usable record contains, and the sequence that keeps it off the critical path.
Daylight and overheating: the glazing trade-off
Daylight rises with glazing area and so does overheating risk. The design decisions that move the two numbers differently, and how to keep both assessments consistent.
Common land, greens and land subject to public rights
Planning permission gives you nothing on a registered common. The searches to run, the consents that apply, and the two tools that protect land from a village green application.
Sites partly in Flood Zone 1 and how to use the rest
Most sites of any size straddle a flood zone boundary. Which part of the red line is in which zone decides the layout, the tests that apply and the documents you need.
Briefing a specialist when the site data is incomplete
Gaps in site data are normal on a small scheme. What matters is whether they are recorded as gaps or filled with something plausible that has to be corrected later.
Evidencing a lawful use where the history is silent
Where no permission exists for the current use, a certificate under section 191 settles it. What evidence councils accept, how to draft declarations, and where applications fail.
Booking bat emergence surveys before the season closes
Miss the emergence survey window and the application waits until next May. The spacing rules, the booking lead times, and where a precautionary method statement is accepted instead.
Solar panel permitted development on homes and businesses
Most roof panels on a house need no application, provided they project no more than 200 millimetres and sit below the ridge. The limits, the exclusions and when prior approval applies.
Internal noise criteria for new homes near a road
35 dB by day, 30 dB in bedrooms at night and peaks below about 45 dB. Meeting those numbers with a ventilation strategy that survives a heatwave is the real design problem.
Tree shading and when pruning is justified
Councils prune protected trees far more often than they fell them. What shading evidence actually works, why cyclical management is the usual outcome, and where the high hedge route applies.
When National Highways objects to an application
The strategic highway authority can stop a council issuing a permission. What triggers an objection, what a direction restricting the grant means, and how the evidence is put right.
Post-excavation assessment, archive and publication
The fieldwork invoice is roughly the halfway point. How post-excavation assessment, analysis, publication and archive deposition work, and why the condition stays live for years.
Balcony overhangs and the room behind them
An inset balcony can take more light from a room than the building opposite. How the with and without convention works, and which design changes actually recover the loss.
Functionally linked land beyond a designated site
A field carrying no designation can still be assessed under the Habitats Regulations if the birds or bats it supports are why the nearby site was designated. What linkage means and how it is proved.
Culverting policy and opportunities to de-culvert
The presumption against culverting shapes site layouts before anyone looks at plot numbers. How the consents work, where a culvert is still accepted, and what opening a channel is worth in the balance.
Article 4 directions that restrict changes of use
An article 4 direction moves a permitted change of use back into the application process. How to check whether one covers a property, what the notice period means, and what the application needs.
Temporary use of buildings and land for film making
Class BA of the GPDO lets a site be used temporarily for film making without a planning application. The limits, the exclusions, the notice to the council and the duty to reinstate.
Competence expectations under the building safety regime
Planning Gateway One puts a named author on the fire statement, and the Building Regulations put competence duties on clients, designers and contractors. Here is what that means for a planning submission.
What objectors can do once a planning appeal starts
Your objection is not lost when an applicant appeals. Here is how you are notified, when comments are due, how to speak at a hearing or inquiry, and what an inspector can take into account.
Withdrawing an application before refusal
If a case officer is minded to refuse, you can withdraw before the decision is issued. Whether that helps depends entirely on what you intend to do next.
Reading a refusal notice and turning it into a plan
The notice is mostly administration. The officer report explains the reasons and usually says what would have been acceptable, and almost nobody reads it.
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