PlanScope Blog – Page 277
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 277
9110 articlesFinding a local validation list and checking it is current
Local validation lists expire after two years under article 11 of the procedure order. Where to find yours, which requests are unlawful and how to answer them.
Full application or outline with reserved matters
Outline permission grants the principle and reserves the detail, but the evidence base barely shrinks. How the two routes compare on cost, timing and value.
Lawful development certificate or planning permission first
A lawful development certificate is decided on law and fact, with no room for neighbour objections. When to use one, and when a planning application is safer.
Precedent in planning decisions and how to use it
A neighbour's approval does not bind the council, yet consistency is a material consideration an officer must address. How to present comparable cases properly.
CIL relief for charities and social housing
Relief from the community infrastructure levy is lost if work starts before the claim is decided. The conditions, the procedure and the clawback events.
Facade retention: structural and heritage evidence
Retaining a frontage while rebuilding behind it needs an honest harm assessment and a temporary works scheme that fits the street. What to submit and why.
Night deliveries and servicing noise at commercial sites
Delivery noise wakes neighbours even when the measured average looks fine. Event based assessment, yard layout, reversing alarms and workable hours conditions.
Wind energy and the community support test in England
Onshore wind once had to show community backing and a site identified in a plan. Those tests have gone, but the consultation record still decides most applications.
Finding a local nature recovery strategy and using it
Local nature recovery strategies decide where habitat creation earns a strategic significance uplift. Where to find the mapping and how to build it into a scheme.
Publicity, site notices and who must be told
Publicity for planning applications follows article 15 of the Development Management Procedure Order. What each band requires, and how to check it was done properly.
Prior approval or planning permission: the real difference
Prior approval and planning permission are different animals. What the council may examine, the 56 day deemed consent, the conditions each route carries and where appeals go.
Amenity in planning terms: what officers actually assess
Amenity is undefined in statute but decides more householder applications than anything else. What it covers, the conventions councils apply, and how to argue it.
Planning conditions: the six tests and how to challenge one
Knowing which of the six tests a condition fails decides whether you negotiate, vary it under section 73 or appeal. The routes compared, with the risk in each.
Demolition in a conservation area: what consent applies
Relevant demolition replaced conservation area consent in England in 2013. Which structures are caught, which fall under the exclusions, and what the council expects to see.
Supplementary planning documents and the weight they carry
Supplementary planning documents are material considerations, not development plan policy. How to test whether one is elaborating a policy or inventing one.
Electric vehicle charging standards in local plans
Part S and local parking standards produce different charging numbers on the same scheme. How to reconcile them before the electrical design is fixed.
Statutory nuisance after planning permission is granted
Complying with your planning conditions does not answer an abatement notice. The two regimes, the appeal deadline and the records that support a defence.
Accessible and motorcycle parking in a new scheme
A designated bay needs 4.8m by 6.0m including transfer zones, not a painted symbol. How to size, place and evidence accessible and motorcycle parking.
Using MAGIC to find ecological designations near a site
MAGIC shows designations and habitat inventories, not species records. How to run the check properly and what it tells you about the survey work ahead.
Viability at plan making or at application stage
Compliant schemes are assumed viable, so an application stage assessment has to earn its place. The circumstances that justify one and the evidence that survives review.
Departure applications: publicity, referral and the case
Departures are not harder in law, only louder in procedure. What triggers the newspaper advertisement, when referral actually applies, and how to draft the balance.
Developer return assumptions in planning viability
Set the return and the land value follows. How national guidance frames the range, why affordable units carry a lower figure, and what evidence justifies moving up.
Basement excavation and tree root protection areas
The root protection area usually covers the basement footprint. How encroachment is measured, which structural solutions buy retention, and what groundwater change does later.
Heat pumps in flats: acoustics and plant space at scale
At scale the heat pump question is where the units go and how loud the array is at night. How the three system architectures differ on planning grounds.
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