PlanScope Blog – Page 262
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 262
9139 articlesBudgeting an energy statement and its calculations
An energy statement is priced by the modelling behind it. Here is what drives the fee, which items local policy adds, and how to stop the design team paying for re-runs.
Reports needed to convert a pub to a house
Pub conversions are decided on community facility policy, not design. Here is the marketing and viability evidence that carries the decision, and the technical reports that go with it.
The conceptual site model in a phase 1 desk study
The conceptual site model is the part of a phase 1 desk study that decides whether you need intrusive investigation. Here is how sources, pathways and receptors are assembled and ranked.
Planning Gateway One and Article 9A of the DMPO
Article 9A requires a fire statement with applications for relevant buildings at 18 metres or seven storeys. What it must cover and how the HSE response shapes the decision.
Noise surveys, school holidays and background levels
Measure the background sound level in the wrong week and the whole assessment is arguable. How to choose a representative survey period and prove that you did.
Reporting a breach of planning control to the council
Councils decide whether to act on a planning breach, and are not obliged to. Here is what counts as a breach, what evidence helps, and what happens after you complain.
What competent person means in planning legislation
Competence is defined differently in each planning regime, and only some versions are statutory. Here is which test applies where, who decides, and what evidence satisfies them.
Retained policy and the SPPS in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland planning policy sits in layers: the SPPS, retained policy statements and each council's emerging plan. Here is how they rank and how to cite them.
Arboricultural method statement: section by section
The method statement is the document a contractor can actually follow. Here is what each section has to contain under BS 5837:2012, and what a tree officer checks before discharging the condition.
Viability assessment or affordable housing statement
An affordable housing statement records the offer. A viability assessment argues for less, and invites scrutiny you may not have needed. How to tell which your scheme requires.
Section 278 and section 38 costs on a small scheme
Section 278 and section 38 agreements carry fees, bonds and commuted sums well beyond the cost of the works. Here is how to budget them on a scheme of a few plots.
Reports needed for a battery storage site by a substation
Grid-scale battery storage in England is determined by the local planning authority whatever its capacity. This is the evidence base a scheme next to a substation actually needs.
Trading rules and irreplaceable habitat in BNG
A biodiversity metric can show a positive percentage and still fail the trading rules. Here is how the distinctiveness bands, risk multipliers and irreplaceable habitat carve-out actually work on a major site.
Reports needed for a self-storage unit on an estate
Self-storage applications on allocated employment sites are decided on job density rather than on technical impact. How to build the employment case, and what the rest of the bundle contains.
The habitat baseline in a Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment
The pre-development habitat baseline sets the figure the whole metric works from. How habitats are classified and condition assessed, why the date matters, and the six errors that send a metric back.
The carbon offset calculation in an Energy Statement
The offset payment is the cash value of emissions a scheme does not eliminate on site. How residual regulated emissions are derived, the period used, and why it belongs in the appraisal early.
Hazardous substances consent and HSE consultation zones
Consent under the Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990 attaches to land, not to an operator. How consultation distances are drawn, what advice against means, and how to design around it.
Section 106 monitoring fees and what they cover
Monitoring fees fund the checking of planning obligations, not the infrastructure itself. Where the power to charge comes from, how fees are calculated, and what to ask before agreeing one.
Parking surveys and the timing the methodology requires
The standard parking stress method counts vehicles in the early hours on weekday and weekend nights. The periods that invalidate a survey, the 200 metre catchment, and how far ahead to book.
Why neighbours cannot appeal a planning approval
Objectors have no right of appeal against a planning permission in England. What judicial review can and cannot do, the six week deadline, costs exposure, and where a neighbour's effort actually counts.
Accredited testing and why laboratory choice matters
Regulators check the schedule of accreditation, not the logo. What accreditation covers, what it does not, and how sample handling and holding times decide whether data survives scrutiny.
Walkthrough: a care home on a suburban site
One illustrative 64 bed care home on a suburban parcel, following the use class question, the need case, amenity evidence, servicing and the documents submitted.
Section 106 heads of terms: a drafting structure
Heads of terms are the specification for the agreement. A field-by-field structure that lets a solicitor draft without asking questions, and the definitions that cause most disputes.
Air quality assessment or odour assessment: which is needed
Air quality assessment is triggered by Air Quality Management Area designation, traffic and combustion plant. Odour assessment is triggered by the process. How to scope both for a commercial unit.
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