PlanScope Blog – Page 272
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 272
9120 articlesSoil handling and restoration conditions
Planning treats soil as a resource, not spoil. What a soil resource plan must cover, the moisture rules that stop work and how restoration conditions are closed out.
Loss of light objections that officers can act on
Councils assess daylight against published technical guidance. How to frame a loss of light objection in those terms, and why rights of light sit outside planning.
Second staircases above 18 metres and what changed
A consented single stair tower above 18 metres cannot be built as approved. How the requirement arrived, what it costs in floor area and which planning route to take.
Transient overshadowing and how it is assessed
Transient shadow moves across a garden through the day. How hourly diagrams are produced, which assessment dates matter and how officers read them.
Reviewing a specialist report you did not commission
Technical reports usually fail on scope, dates or the wrong scheme rather than on the science. How to review one without holding the technical qualification.
Drafting section 106 heads of terms for a minor scheme
Most delay on a small section 106 comes from loose heads of terms. How to write obligations a solicitor can draft from without further instructions.
Welsh language considerations in planning applications
Welsh authorities set thresholds for language impact assessment in their development plans. What the assessment covers, which evidence to use and how officers weigh it.
Wedding venues in farm buildings: use and noise limits
A few events a year may be incidental to farming, a venue business is a change of use. What evidence a barn wedding application needs on noise, access and hours.
Refuse, servicing and tracking as schemes grow
Once plots sit beyond the carry distances, a refuse vehicle has to enter the site and the road layout follows from it. What to draw and who to ask.
Farm access onto a rural road: visibility evidence
Highway officers decide farm accesses on visibility evidence. How to survey approach speeds, set out the splay and deal with hedgerow removal and gate setbacks.
Biodiversity gain plans: submission and approval
No development can start until the authority approves the biodiversity gain plan. What the plan must contain, how it is assessed and how to sequence it.
Objecting on highway safety without being an engineer
National policy allows refusal on highway grounds only for unacceptable safety impacts or severe residual effects. How to write an objection that meets that test.
The golden thread and what planning contributes to it
Gateway One fire statements, approved drawings and discharged conditions all feed the golden thread. How to structure planning information so it survives handover.
Overlooking and the 21 metre separation convention
Separation distances protect privacy, not sightlines on a plan. How officers apply the 21 metre convention, when a shorter distance works and what to draw.
Writing a brief that gets a usable specialist report
Consultants answer the question they are asked. How to write a brief that names the decision, the standard, the survey season and the deliverable format.
What section 106 can secure that the levy cannot
Section 106 mitigates the impact of one scheme, the levy funds infrastructure generally. How the regulation 122 tests decide which mechanism carries a contribution.
SuDS Approving Body consent in Wales and what it needs
In Wales, sustainable drainage approval is a separate statutory consent from planning permission. What triggers it, which standards apply and how adoption works.
Shisha lounges: ventilation, smoking rules and use class
Smoke-free law defines an enclosed space by measured openings, while planning controls the use and any outdoor structure. How shisha premises satisfy both.
Nutrient and water neutrality on a single dwelling
One house in an affected catchment faces the same habitats regulations duty as a 200 unit scheme. What the nutrient budget contains and how small schemes secure mitigation.
Replacing a rural building rather than converting it
A conversion keeps the building, a replacement is new build in the countryside, and the evidence for each is different. How to decide which route your barn can carry.
What changes at five dwellings on a single site
A five unit scheme sits below every major threshold and still needs an evidence base close to a major application. Shared access, drainage and group design are why.
Forestry operations and permitted development rights
Forestry permitted development allows buildings and tracks reasonably necessary for forestry, and nothing else. Felling is controlled separately, and a licence is not planning permission.
The statutory planning register and what must be on it
The council's online search is one way of meeting the statutory duty to keep a register, not the duty itself. The record is wider than the portal, and you can ask to see it.
Permission in principle: when it is worth using
Permission in principle answers one question quickly: does the council accept housing here, in this quantity. It cannot carry conditions and it cannot resolve access or design.
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