PlanScope Blog – Page 250
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 250
9161 articlesThe 0.8 rule for retained daylight and how it works
The proportional 0.8 test sits alongside the absolute daylight target, and both limbs have to fail before harm is identified. How to set the baseline and present the comparison.
The 25 degree test in section for a rear extension
A line drawn at 25 degrees from the centre of a neighbour's window decides whether your extension needs a full daylight assessment. How to construct it and where it misleads.
Modifying a root protection area for an asymmetric crown
Crown shape reflects light and pruning, not rooting. What actually justifies an offset root protection area, when to commission the investigation, and what reviewers reject.
Reshaping a root protection area without reducing it
The root protection area is an area, not a shape. What BS 5837:2012 allows when the default circle is wrong, the evidence that supports a modification, and why reviewers reject most of them.
Reading a BS 5837 tree schedule column by column
The table at the back of an arboricultural report drives the planning decision. What each column means, and how to use stem diameter to test your own layout.
What conservation area designation changes for a house
Designation does not freeze a house. It removes named permitted development rights, raises the test applied to any application, and brings trees and demolition into control.
Extending a house covered by an Article 4 direction
If an Article 4 direction covers your address, the extension your neighbour built without applying needs planning permission from you. What the direction removes, why no fee is payable, and how to check.
Subordinate extension design: ridge, eaves and the host house
Ridge set down, eaves line and width against the original elevation decide most householder applications. What subordination means in adopted design guidance and how to show it on a drawing.
Matching brickwork on an extension and why it never blends
Matching bricks on an extension is a planning condition with consequences, not a finishing touch. What officers actually test, and how to get the condition discharged first time.
Running a parking stress survey that stands up
Parking stress is measured overnight, on a defined beat, using a recognised method. Here is how to set the survey up, calculate capacity and use the result for a car free scheme.
Landscape conditions and the five year replacement clause
The replacement clause in a landscaping condition binds whoever owns the land, for five years. Here is what triggers it, how to evidence compliance and how to vary a failed scheme.
Searching appeal decisions on the casework service
Appeal decisions are material considerations, not precedent. Here is how to search the casework service, read a decision for transferable reasoning, and cite it without overclaiming.
Set back on a two storey side extension from the flank
The set back at first floor exists to stop a street of semis reading as a terrace. Here is where the dimension comes from, when it is waived, and how to design the return without losing space.
Non statutory designations that still stop schemes
Locally listed buildings, landscape designations and settlement gaps are applied through the plan rather than through statute, and they refuse schemes weekly. Here is how the balance is struck.
Using the planning register to research a precedent
A comparable decision is a material consideration, not a binding precedent. Here is how to find the right cases on the register, read them properly and cite them without overclaiming.
The optional water efficiency standard and how it applies
The 110 litre optional standard applies only where the local plan justifies it and a condition imposes it. Here is how it is calculated, specified and discharged.
The agent of change principle and how decisions apply it
Agent of change puts mitigation on the incoming development, not on the established business. Here is what it requires, how objections are won on survey evidence, and where the policy stops.
Writing a travel plan a council will actually monitor
Travel plans fail when nobody is named, funded or obliged to run them. Here is how to set the baseline, write testable targets and draft the remedial mechanism into the obligation.
Appealing a refusal of consent for protected tree works
Objections to a Tree Preservation Order and appeals against a refusal of consent are two different windows with different evidence. Here is how each one works and what succeeds.
Ordering constraint checks in the right sequence
Most self-builders find constraints in the right order and act on them in the wrong one. Here is a sequence for a small site, from free desk checks to season-bound ecology surveys.
Finding your local plan policies map and using it
The policies map shows where each local plan policy applies. Here is how to find it, read the layers that matter for a householder scheme, and quote the policy properly.
Embodied carbon in retention against demolition
A retrofit first case is won on how the options appraisal is framed, not on the final carbon figure. Here is how to set the comparison up and what evidence survives committee.
Noise-sensitive development beside a railway line
Beside a railway the night maximum level usually decides the scheme, not the average. Here is how to survey it, specify the facade and judge whether vibration isolation is proportionate.
Justifying trip rates from a national survey database
Trip rate site selection decides the answer, so highway authorities review the filters rather than the arithmetic. Here is the sequence to apply and how to present it so it can be checked.
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