PlanScope Blog – Page 256
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 256
9150 articlesInconsistent permissions and the Pilkington principle
Two permissions on one site is normal. Implementing both is often not. The test the courts apply, the drop-in problem after Hillside, and the file note that settles arguments.
Soundness and the tests at a plan examination
Soundness has four limbs and legal compliance is a separate question with a much harsher outcome. What each test asks, which evidence it targets, and how to write a representation that works.
Objecting to surface water drainage proposals
A drainage objection works when it supplies what the consultee cannot: dated photographs, depths and flow directions. What to ask about discharge rates, infiltration and maintenance.
Second staircase provision and planning layouts
Adding a second staircase turns an efficient point block into a different building. What changes in planning terms, which amendment route applies, and what the fire statement must say.
Mirror image massing tests in daylight assessments
The mirror image test replaces a scheme with a notional contextual form and re-runs the analysis. It is a context test, not a compliance test, and the construction decides the answer.
Climate change allowances: picking the right percentile
Four inputs decide which climate change allowance applies: catchment, variable, vulnerability and lifetime. Getting one wrong costs you the floor levels or the storage volume.
Article 4 directions: what they remove and how to check
An article 4 direction removes named permitted development rights in a mapped area. Why applications it forces are free of charge, and why twelve months notice matters.
Serviced apartments, aparthotels and the C1 boundary
The C1 and C3 boundary for serviced apartments is decided on how units are actually occupied. Length of stay, service level, occupancy conditions and the London 90 night rule.
Budgeting a daylight and sunlight evidence base
Daylight and sunlight costs are driven by the number of neighbouring windows and the number of times the massing changes. A stage by stage way to budget the evidence base.
Permission for a go-kart or off-road driving track
Motorsport tracks are decided on noise. The temporary use allowance gives 14 racing days a year, and the permanent route turns on background sound levels, bunds and conditions.
Ransom strips and the share of uplift
A metre of forgotten grass can hold a scheme to ransom. The Stokes v Cambridge share, how to find a strip during due diligence, and the alternatives to paying.
Questions to ask at a developer consultation event
A pre-application exhibition is the last point at which a scheme changes without great cost. What to ask about parameter plans, access and drainage, and why you must comment again later.
Water supplies for firefighting and hydrant conditions
Firefighting water supply involves the fire authority, the water undertaker and the developer at once. What the condition requires, what the flow test decides, and where the budget goes.
When a daylight and sunlight assessment is required
Whether you need a daylight and sunlight assessment is set by the council's validation list, not by national policy. The triggers, the screening tests and what to send when no study is needed.
Half drain time and why attenuation designs get rejected
Attenuation storage that takes two days to half empty is not available for the next storm. What the half drain time criterion tests, and the design moves that fix a failing scheme.
Tree Preservation Orders: what is protected and how
Tree Preservation Orders protect individual trees, groups, areas and woodlands but never hedges. What is exempt, how to apply for consent, and the replacement duty that survives a lawful felling.
The 280 square metre local shop provision in Class F2
A shop that meets all three limbs of Class F2(a) sits outside Class E and loses its flexibility. How the floorspace, goods and distance conditions are tested.
Moving between C3 and C4 and the Article 4 problem
The C3 to C4 permitted change is real and widely withdrawn. Where to look for an article 4 direction, how to prove an existing HMO use, and why reverting to C3 is a one way door.
Fee refunds where a council fails to determine in time
Regulation 9A of the 2012 fee regulations refunds the planning fee after 26 weeks without a decision. Signing an extension of time gives that entitlement away.
Appeal statement of case for a householder refusal
A householder appeal must be lodged within 12 weeks and there is no further exchange afterwards. A structure for the statement of case, and the evidence inspectors actually use.
Permission for a modular classroom at a school
Whether a modular classroom needs permission turns on Part 7 Class M of the GPDO and on playing field land. Sport England's exceptions decide more schemes than local plan policy does.
Which reports a ten pod glamping site needs
A ten pod glamping site is a change of use of land. The documents that actually decide it are the foul drainage calculation, the landscape evidence and the access assessment.
Completion notices and unfinished development explained
Completion notices sound severe and rarely are. What section 94 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets a council do to a stalled build, and what it cannot touch.
Heritage Statement for a listed shopfront alteration
A shopfront heritage statement has to describe significance element by element before it describes the proposal, and be honest about the level of harm identified.
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