PlanScope Blog – Page 245
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 245
9170 articlesGrampian conditions or planning obligations: which to use
Securing off-site works turns on one question: is there a reasonable prospect of the event happening within the life of the permission? The answer decides the mechanism.
Fire safety in listed buildings: escape versus fabric
Fire safety duties and the duty to preserve a listed building pull in opposite directions. The resolution is almost always a fire engineered solution, not a standard one.
NOEL, LOAEL and SOAEL: the noise exposure hierarchy
The noise hierarchy is a policy device, not a pass or fail test. None of its thresholds has a national value, so an assessment has to derive them for the site.
Challenging a daylight assessment as an objector
Weak daylight assessments usually fail in the scoping and the baseline, not the calculation. Those are the parts you can check without specialist software.
Water efficiency standards and the optional requirement
New homes meet 125 litres per person per day by default. The tighter 110 litre standard needs a local plan policy, a planning condition and the full calculator.
Proportionate tree survey for a householder extension
Most extensions need either no arboricultural work or a short report with two drawings. Here is how to tell which, and how to push back on an over-broad validation list.
Nurseries and childcare in commercial premises
A nursery in a former shop or office is a change within Class E. The issues that decide whether the unit works are outdoor play space, peak drop-off traffic, noise and air quality.
How an inspector's decision letter is structured
An appeal decision states the outcome first and explains it afterwards. Knowing the structure tells you where the decision was made and what a later case can rely on.
Reading the planning register and tracking a decision
Every council keeps a public register of planning applications. Here is how to search it, what the tabs contain, and how to be told when something changes.
Modelling assumptions in an overheating risk assessment
Occupancy, gains, weather files and criteria are prescribed in a dynamic overheating assessment. What the modeller controls is the building, and that is where reports fail.
Enforcement time limits: the move to ten years explained
The four year rule is gone in England. A single ten year period now applies to all breaches occurring after April 2024, while earlier breaches keep the old period.
What LTN 1/20 requires at a site access
LTN 1/20 expects tight radii, a continuous footway across the access and a driver who yields. Here is how that plays out against local adoption standards.
Viability at appeal and confidential appraisals
National guidance expects viability assessments to be published. At appeal that presumption hardens, and evidence the other side cannot test attracts little weight.
Radon protection and where the requirement bites
If your plot sits in a radon affected area, Approved Document C requires protective measures in the new building. Check the address before the ground floor design is fixed.
Shadow path diagrams and transient overshadowing
A shadow path diagram illustrates an effect; it does not test one. Here are the conventions that make a transient overshadowing study checkable, and the cases where it adds nothing.
Wind turbines on a farm: the policy tests that apply
There is no permitted development right for a wind turbine on agricultural land in England. Six workstreams decide the application, and radar safeguarding is the one to test first.
Lighting a car park: illuminance, uniformity and curfews
Car park lighting schemes fail either on spill at the boundary or on dark corners inside the site. The evidence that resolves both is an isolux drawing with window-by-window vertical illuminance.
Evidencing a tree canopy cover policy
Canopy cover policies are lost on arithmetic, not on planting. Here is how to measure existing crowns, project new trees to a stated age, and set the calculation out so it can be checked.
Dental and medical practices in a Class E unit
Moving a retail unit to a dental or medical practice is a change within Class E and needs no permission for the use. The condition on the permission, the plant and the signage are another matter.
Overcoming a heritage harm refusal reason
Heritage refusals are rarely beaten by claiming no harm. They are beaten by changing the level of harm found and evidencing public benefits that are real and deliverable.
Discharging conditions and the deemed discharge route
Conditions do not discharge themselves. Here is how the application works, how to group conditions sensibly, and when section 74A lets you serve a deemed discharge notice.
The catchment definition section of a retail impact assessment
The catchment zones you draw decide every turnover and diversion figure that follows. Here is how to set them, which centres to assess, and where the method gets attacked.
The routing section of a construction management plan
The logistics section is what the highway officer reads. Agreed routes, vehicle numbers by phase, booking systems, swept path drawings and the monitoring that keeps a condition discharged.
Vertical sky component
A glossary entry for the daylight measurement that decides most neighbour objections: what it describes, the two part test, where the benchmark comes from and how officers read the numbers.
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