PlanScope Blog – Page 247
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 247
9165 articlesSelecting TRICS sites and the filters councils challenge
Trip rates derived from TRICS are only as strong as the filters behind them. Here is how to select and present sites so a highway authority can audit the selection rather than challenge it.
Finding published pre-application advice charges
Pre-application charges are set locally under a discretionary charging power, so they differ between councils. Here is where the schedules are published and what each service tier actually includes.
New evidence at appeal and when it is refused
An appeal is a redetermination, not a fresh start. Here is when inspectors admit evidence the council never saw, the hard bar in householder appeals, and how amended plans are treated.
Delegated decision or committee: how schemes are triaged
The scheme of delegation in a council's constitution decides whether an application is settled by an officer or by members. Here are the triggers, the call-in deadlines and what referral costs in time.
Replacement windows in an unlisted period house
Window replacement in an unlisted house is permitted development unless an Article 4 direction has removed the right. Here is how to check, and what profile detail a conservation officer will expect.
Meanwhile use and temporary permissions in town centres
Short term occupation of an empty shop usually needs no planning application at all, provided the new activity stays within Class E. Here is where the line falls and what else has to be in place.
Securing an energy strategy through planning conditions
The trigger wording on an energy condition decides whether a phased scheme can hand over on programme. Here is how to draft, vary and discharge energy and carbon conditions.
Basement impact assessment: what the auditor checks
Where a council commissions an independent audit of a Basement Impact Assessment, the auditor checks the staged methodology and the evidence behind every screening answer. Here is what they look for.
Amenity effects of a dormer on the neighbouring house
Dormer objections turn on overlooking from a raised floor level rather than on size. Here is how councils assess privacy, daylight to rooflights and the setbacks that resolve most disputes.
Odour buffers around a sewage treatment works
Residential land near a wastewater treatment works is decided by dispersion modelling against published odour benchmarks, not by a fixed distance. Here is how the assessment and the layout fit together.
Specifying crown reduction so the tree officer agrees
Applications to work on protected trees fail on vague wording. Here is how to specify a crown reduction in measurements and cut points that a tree officer can assess and enforce.
Evidence for access from a single track rural lane
Access from a single track lane is decided on passing place intervisibility, measured speeds and vehicle tracking. Here is the evidence a highway authority expects to see with the application.
Public rights of way across a development site
Footpaths and bridleways survive a grant of planning permission. Here is how to check the definitive map and statement, and how section 257 and Highways Act orders run alongside an application.
Writing a statement of case an inspector can use
An appeal statement of case should answer each refusal reason in the order the council numbered them, with sourced evidence and a bundle that has been sifted. Here is how to structure one.
When an application is made invalid after submission
Validation happens after you submit, and an invalid application has no statutory clock running. Here is what the authority must tell you, what happens to the fee, and how to challenge a validation decision.
Annexe or separate dwelling: where the line falls
The difference between an annexe and a second dwelling turns on the planning unit and the degree of separation, not on floor area. Here is how councils apply the test and how to confirm your position.
Deciding whether a refusal reason is worth appealing
A refusal notice usually mixes evidence reasons, merits reasons and reasons of principle, and each calls for a different response. Here is how to triage them before the appeal deadline decides for you.
What pre-application advice commits the council to
Pre-application advice is one officer's view, given without consultation or members. Here is what a written response can usefully cover, what it cannot do, and how to ask questions that produce answers you can use.
Glazed link extensions to a period house
A glazed link keeps the original building reading as a complete object, which is why officers accept it where an abutting extension would be refused. It also takes a linked outbuilding out of the Class E allowances.
Timing tree works around bats and nesting birds
Bird law protects the active nest rather than a season, and a bat roost is protected whether or not a bat is in it. Here is the order to work in: roost assessment, then season, then a pre-works nest check.
School travel plans and the application that needs one
School travel plans are judged on how they handle two fifteen minute peaks, not on annual mode share. Here is the survey work, the alternatives to a drop-off loop, and the conditions that secure delivery.
Reading a section 106 agreement on the register
A section 106 binds the land, not the developer who signed it. Here is where agreements are published, what the exclusion clauses mean for a purchaser, and how to check what has actually been paid.
Flat or pitched roof on a single storey extension
The eaves height limit within 2m of a boundary, not taste, decides most extension roof forms. Here is the arithmetic, the minimum pitch each covering needs, and how each form reads against the host house.
Deferred contributions and indexation in section 106
A planning obligation is only indexed if the agreement says so. Here is how to choose the index, fix the base date to the evidence rather than the signature, and define triggers that work.
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