PlanScope Blog – Page 257
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 257
9147 articlesPurchase notices when land becomes incapable of use
The purchase notice test compares the land with its existing state, not with its value had permission been granted, which is why most notices fail at the first hurdle.
Survey programme for a spring start on site
Ecological survey windows are the fixed points in any planning programme. Missing one costs a year, so the appraisal that identifies them should be done in winter.
Objecting to an advertisement consent application
Councils may consider only amenity and public safety when deciding advertisement consent, so objections about content, competition or the applicant go nowhere.
Habitats sites: SAC, SPA and Ramsar in planning
Where a habitats site may be affected, the council must conclude there is no adverse effect on integrity. That is not a balance, which is why these schemes stall.
Protecting a pub: community value and use class
Planning law decides whether a pub may lawfully become something else. Asset of community value listing only buys a community group time to raise the money.
Solar panels and the 200 millimetre projection limit
Class A of Part 14 allows domestic solar without permission, subject to a 0.2 metre projection limit that tilted frames on flat roofs almost always exceed.
The cost of putting retrospective development right
The fee for a retrospective application is the ordinary one, but the concessions fall away and a lost levy exemption can cost more than everything else combined.
Drainage strategy for a minor residential scheme
On schemes under ten dwellings the lead local flood authority is not a statutory consultee, so the drainage strategy has to convince a case officer on its own.
Permission for a car showroom and vehicle sales
A car showroom needs permission for the building and separately for the land cars stand on, and forecourt lighting and transporter deliveries decide most applications.
Which reports a pub to residential conversion needs
Pub conversions are refused on marketing and viability evidence far more often than on technical grounds, and permitted development rights were removed in 2017.
Optimum viable use for a historic building
The optimum viable use of a listed building is the least harmful option among those that can sustain it, which makes the options appraisal the document that decides the case.
Pre-application advice queues and the new financial year
Council pre-application charges and service targets are set annually and usually change around 1 April, which makes the timing of a request a programming decision.
Objecting to purpose built student accommodation
Objections to purpose built student accommodation succeed on effects rather than occupiers. Daylight, parking at term time, management and policy loss are where the weight lies.
Development near a site of special scientific interest
The practical constraint around an SSSI is the impact risk zone rather than the notified boundary, and air quality and water zones can extend for kilometres.
Turning a shop into a hot food takeaway
Hot food takeaways left the use classes in 2020, so every change from a shop needs permission, and the application is decided on the flue route as much as on policy.
Farm development on units of less than five hectares
On an agricultural unit between 0.4 and five hectares, Class B permits extensions, hard surfaces, private ways and plant, but never the erection of a new building.
How costs awards at appeal are assessed and paid
Costs at appeal follow unreasonable behaviour rather than the outcome. The decision sets entitlement only, and the sum is then agreed between the parties or assessed by the court.
Viability appraisal inputs: a schedule to agree first
Most viability disputes are arguments about assumptions. Settle benchmark land value, sales values, costs, abnormals and return in a written schedule before the appraisal is run.
Permission for a poultry unit and its EIA screening
Bird numbers and new floorspace decide whether a poultry unit needs an environmental statement, and ammonia deposition on nearby habitats usually decides the application.
Which reports a day nursery in a residential street needs
Converting a house to a day nursery needs permission, and the application turns on outdoor play noise and the short drop-off peak rather than on floorspace.
Material change of use under section 55
A change of use needs planning permission only if it is material, and materiality turns on the character of the use rather than the occupier or the trading name.
The self-build CIL exemption and the forms to file
The self-build exemption is worth tens of thousands and is lost more often than any other relief, almost always because a form went in late or in the wrong order.
Which reports a 12 flat brownfield scheme needs
Twelve flats behaves like a large scheme. Here is what crossing the ten unit major threshold adds to the evidence base on a brownfield site, document by document.
Design and access statement for a barn conversion
A rural conversion statement has one argument to make: that the building can become a house without ceasing to be a barn. Here is how to structure it, section by section.
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