PlanScope Blog – Page 238
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 238
9182 articlesMaterial change of use: what it means in planning
Section 55 makes a material change in the use of land or buildings development, so it needs permission. Materiality is judged on the facts, against the planning unit.
Less than substantial harm: what it means in planning
Harm to a listed building or conservation area falls into one of two categories in national policy. The lower one still attracts great weight, and it is not a neutral finding.
Tilted balance: what it means in planning
When a council cannot rely on up-to-date policies, national policy tilts the decision towards approval. Here is when the presumption is engaged, what disapplies it, and what it does not do.
Planning unit: what it means in planning
Before a council can decide whether a use has changed materially, it has to fix the area it is judging. That area is the planning unit, and Burdle gives the three-part test used to identify it.
Forming a new vehicle access under Part 2 Class B
A dropped kerb involves two consents: planning for the access itself, which Class B of Part 2 may cover on an unclassified road, and the highway authority's crossover approval under section 184.
Hard surfaces under Class F and porous surfacing
Class F of the GPDO lets you lay a driveway without planning permission. Over 5 square metres in a front garden, the surface must be porous or drain to a permeable area inside the curtilage.
Loft dormers under Part 1 Class B: volume and position
Class B of the GPDO 2015 allows a loft dormer without planning permission, inside a 40 or 50 cubic metre volume allowance, away from the principal elevation and set back from the eaves.
Tree Preservation Order consent or a section 211 notice
An Order means an application and a decision you can appeal. A conservation area tree means six weeks notice and, if the council does nothing, you may proceed.
Reports for a residential block reaching 18 metres
At 18 metres the fire statement becomes a validation requirement and the Building Safety Regulator becomes a consultee. Wind, daylight and townscape work follows.
Section 106 triggers and when a payment falls due
The trigger turns an obligation into a debt. Negotiating it at heads of terms stage changes your cash flow far more than arguing about the quantum ever will.
Planning permission for a school classroom block
Part 7 of the GPDO covers some school buildings, but not on a playing field. Beyond those limits you need a full application and Sport England becomes a consultee.
Reports for a site in a nutrient neutrality catchment
The authority cannot determine the application until it can carry out an appropriate assessment. The nutrient budget decides how much mitigation you have to buy.
Forecasting jobs in an Economic Impact Assessment
Employment densities give you a gross number. Deadweight, leakage, displacement, substitution and multipliers turn it into the net figure officers will test.
Prior approval periods and when consent is deemed given
Deemed consent is a real right, but it only approves the details you submitted and it only runs if the application was valid on the day it arrived.
Archaeological work and registered organisation status
The curatorial archaeologist sets the brief and approves the method. Knowing how that works, and which questions to ask a contractor, keeps the condition dischargeable.
Fire Statement or fire safety strategy at planning stage
One is a planning validation requirement under Article 9A of the DMPO 2015. The other is a fire engineering document for the Building Regulations. Confusing them costs weeks.
Planning permission for shepherd huts for tourism
If the hut is a caravan, the question is the use of land as a caravan site. If it is fixed down, it is a building, and the application is much harder.
Reports for a site adjoining a Site of Special Scientific Interest
The impact risk zone and its criteria, not the size of your scheme, set the report list next to a designated site. Here is how to read the zone and scope the work.
The wider sustainability benefits limb of the Exception Test
Benefits have to be specific, attributable and secured. Quantify the residual flood risk first, then set the benefits against it, or the chapter will not carry the scheme.
Percolation testing and soakaway design for drainage
The infiltration rate is the number that sizes your soakaway. Here is the test method, the groundwater constraint, and what to do when the ground will not take water.
When to commission an independent peer review
Peer review earns its fee on viability, contested technical evidence and appeals. Scope it around decisions, screen the reviewer for conflicts, and decide in advance what you will do with the findings.
Air quality or odour assessment for a commercial kitchen
One measures regulated pollutants against objectives, the other assesses the risk of complaints about cooking smells. Knowing which applies saves a wasted commission.
Planning permission for a livery yard
Keeping other people's horses is not agriculture, so a livery yard needs permission as a sui generis commercial use. Manure, access and floodlighting decide most applications.
Reports for a plot with a protected tree on the frontage
A protected frontage tree brings a BS 5837 survey, an impact assessment and a method statement, plus a separate consent for any work to the tree itself.
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