PlanScope Blog – Page 231
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 231
9195 articlesSubsidence claims and removing a protected tree
A general statement that trees cause subsidence on clay is not evidence. The case has to link this tree to this damage at this property, and heave risk cuts the other way.
Section 278 agreements and how they follow a permission
On a minor scheme the highways agreement routinely takes longer to complete than the planning application did. Developers programme it as a formality and it is not one.
Sections 66 and 72 and what they require of decisions
Neither duty prohibits anything. They put a thumb on the scale, and the courts have been specific about how heavy that thumb is.
Which rooms are tested in a daylight and sunlight assessment
Two assessors can reach different conclusions on the same scheme because one treated a rear room as a bedroom and the other as the main living space.
Hydrologically linked sites and SSSI risk
Hydrological effects travel further than noise or dust and arrive slowly. If water moves from your site to a designated one, the distance between them is secondary.
Flood resistance and resilience measures in design
Sealing a house against a metre of water can damage it. Treating a shallow nuisance flood as inevitable wastes a kitchen. Depth and duration decide the approach.
Conditions that remove Class E flexibility
Most conditions people believe restrict use do not, and many intended to restrict use fail on drafting. For a lease or a purchase this is the check worth doing first.
Development by water and sewerage undertakers
A pumping station can appear with no planning application because Part 13 grants undertakers permission for works connected with their statutory functions. The rights are narrower than they look.
One multidisciplinary practice or separate specialists
The appointment structure decides who carries coordination risk on your planning submission, and coordination risk is what turns a straightforward application into a delay.
Refusals for loss of employment land and how to answer
A refusal for loss of employment land is a policy refusal. Redrawing the scheme will not answer it; marketing, suitability and economic evidence will.
Grey belt and how the term is applied in policy
Nothing is drawn on a policies map. Grey belt asks whether a parcel of Green Belt does much of the work the designation was made to do, and the evidence decides it.
Choosing the measurement position for a BS 4142 survey
Two acousticians can reach opposite conclusions on the same plant without an arithmetic error. The measurement position is usually the reason, and it has to be justified in writing.
Veteran trees and the buffer expected around them
National policy treats ancient and veteran trees as irreplaceable habitat, and deterioration counts as harm. The buffer is the mechanism, and it constrains layouts early.
Selecting and defending trip rates in a transport assessment
A trip rate the highway authority rejects invalidates the modelling behind it. The defensible rate is rarely the lowest one, it is the one with a reproducible filter log.
Heritage at risk: grants, repairs notices and urgent works
A heritage at risk entry carries no legal effect, but the powers behind it do. Urgent works, repairs notices and minimum compensation all sit in the 1990 Act.
Separation distances for privacy and how councils justify them
Separation standards come from local design guidance, not legislation. Knowing where the figures came from is the basis of every successful case for a departure.
Infilling in villages washed over by Green Belt
Three questions decide a village infill case in the Green Belt: is the settlement washed over, is the site a gap in a built-up frontage, and is the scale limited.
Blue roofs and permeable paving on constrained urban sites
Blue roofs and permeable paving are what urban drainage strategies fall back on when there is no external space. Both carry structural and maintenance consequences that need settling early.
Agricultural buildings and the absence of a use class
Agriculture appears nowhere in the Use Classes Order. Section 55 takes it outside development altogether, which is why moving into agricultural use is free and moving out never is.
Solar canopies over car parks under Part 14
Part 14 splits solar into separate classes for buildings, ground mounted arrays and car park canopies. Getting the class right decides whether you need prior approval or a full application.
Comparing fee quotes for the same specialist report
The difference between specialist fee quotes is rarely the day rate. It is the scope, the exclusions, the revision allowance and the survey window hidden in the programme.
Neighbour amenity refusals: overlooking and overbearing
Amenity refusals usually bundle overlooking, overbearing impact and loss of light into one sentence. Each is tested differently, and each needs different evidence.
Internal alterations that harm significance
Nothing has to be visible from the street for listed building consent to be needed. Plan form, hidden fabric, and the limits of the reversibility argument.
Significance of effects in an ecological impact assessment
Significance is a geographic judgement, not a score. How value, impact and effect fit together, and the errors reviewers find most often in the residual table.
Not sure which documents your council will ask for?
Enter your postcode and PlanScope recommends the right reports for your project, then drafts them in minutes.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope