PlanScope Blog – Page 244
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 244
9171 articlesMass timber in tall residential buildings: three constraints
Only one of the three constraints on mass timber in tall residential buildings is a planning matter. Here is how the external wall rules, the gateway process and the insurance market interact, and what to submit.
Energy strategies for listed buildings and the heritage balance
The statutory duty to have special regard to preserving a listed building does not disappear because a scheme saves carbon. Here is how to order the measures, prove necessity and keep the fabric working.
Wood burning stoves, smoke control areas and planning
A smoke control area changes what you may burn and in what appliance. The flue is a separate question with its own permitted development limits, and the building regulations height rule does not override them.
Fitness studios above or beside homes: the noise case
A gym in a Class E unit may need no permission at all, but dropped weights transmit through the structure in a way mass will not stop. Here is what actually works, and the condition worth offering.
Retrospective application fees and the enforcement surcharge
Applying before a notice is served costs the ordinary fee. Applying afterwards costs twice as much. Here is how the fee rules work, what the deemed application at appeal costs, and when a certificate is the better route.
Commenting on a planning appeal as a third party
If you objected and the applicant appeals, you can comment again, but to the Inspectorate rather than the council and within a deadline. Here is what carries weight and what does not.
Clearing a statutory consultee holding objection
Most holding objections contain their own solution in the second half of the letter. Here is how to extract the real asks, avoid triggering repeated re-consultation, and offer conditions a consultee will accept.
The consultation record inside a community involvement statement
A consultation record has to let an officer follow the trail from comment to change. Here is how to log methods and reach, report feedback without filtering it, and evidence what the scheme did in response.
Commencement and completion notices under the 2023 Act
Three different things are called a commencement notice and two are called a completion notice. Here is what the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 added, what it does not do, and what to check before advising.
Bat licences: who holds one and what it allows
A survey licence lets an ecologist look for bats. A mitigation licence lets the works proceed. They are held by different people at different stages, and the order they come in decides when you can build.
Net trip generation on a change of use application
The number that matters on a change of use is the net trip figure, not the gross one. Here is how to establish the lawful baseline, use the Class E fallback and present a comparison a highway officer will accept.
Drafting overage and clawback in a section 106 agreement
Most review mechanisms never produce a payment, and the reason sits in the defined terms rather than the scheme's performance. A drafting guide to cost and revenue definitions, audit rights, triggers and security.
Retaining walls and the geotechnical case at planning
A retaining wall is part of what you are applying for, not a detail for later. Levels tied to Ordnance Datum, sections through the boundary, a ground model and a drainage detail are what get a sloping site through validation.
The baseline problem in a refurbishment carbon assessment
A refurbishment starts with a structure that carries no product stage carbon inside the assessment boundary. Here is how to state that boundary, choose a defensible counterfactual and avoid the service life assumptions reviewers pull apart.
Waste transfer station odour: the permit and planning line
Planning decisions must assume the permitting regime works, so odour refusals based on operator behaviour fail on appeal. Here is what planning can still control at a waste transfer station, and the conditions that hold up.
Which arboricultural method statement sections get conditioned
Only part of an arboricultural method statement ever becomes enforceable. Here are the sections councils turn into conditions, and how to write them so they still work on site two years later.
Evidencing Green Belt openness in a planning application
Openness means the absence of development, with spatial and visual dimensions confirmed by the courts. This is about evidencing it: volumetric schedules, sections, fallback comparisons and how to structure the assessment.
Vets, boarding and day care: where the use class changes
A vet practice and a boarding kennel sit on opposite sides of the use classes line. Here is where the boundary falls, how barking noise is assessed, and which conditions councils actually impose.
When a resubmitted planning application is fee exempt
The fee exemption on a resubmitted application is a checklist, not a courtesy. Same applicant, same site, same character of development, one use only, twelve months. Here is how each condition is applied.
Appealing part of a scheme and why permissions rarely sever
There is no partial planning appeal in England. If a council refuses a scheme over one dormer or one access, here are the three ways of changing what the inspector determines, and what each costs you.
How to request an EIA screening opinion
A screening opinion decides whether your scheme is EIA development before you apply. Here is what the request must contain, how long the council has, and what to do with the answer.
Environmental zones in a lighting assessment, explained
The environmental zone decides every number in a lighting assessment. Here is how E0 to E4 are assigned, what each obtrusive light limit controls, and how to confirm the zone with the council before you model anything.
Amending the description of development after submission
The description of development is the permission. Minor changes can be agreed during determination; after the decision the options narrow sharply.
The storage and collection section of a waste strategy
A waste strategy succeeds or fails on three checkable points: enough capacity, workable distances, and a collection vehicle that can reach the presentation point.
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