PlanScope Blog – Page 279
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 279
9106 articlesBasement waterproofing to BS 8102 and the design water table
BS 8102 waterproofing decisions follow from two things: the grade of internal environment the basement has to achieve, and how high groundwater can rise against the structure.
Solar and heat pumps on a listed building: consent tests
Consent for renewables on a listed building is decided on reversibility and harm to special interest, not on carbon saved. The design hierarchy that gets approvals, and the four patterns that get refused.
Biomass boilers, emissions limits and smoke control areas
A biomass installation raises two separate approvals: the planning position on the flue, and Clean Air Act 1993 controls on smoke, chimney height and emissions. They run on different timetables.
Road safety audit stages and who commissions each one
Stages 1 to 4 of a road safety audit follow the design and construction sequence, and the scheme promoter pays for all of them. The independence rules and the exception report are where the procedure earns its keep.
Class E change of use: moving a unit inside the class
A change from one Class E use to another is not development under section 55(2)(f), so no permission is needed. Old conditions, extraction works and the lawful use record are where the difficulty sits.
Rights of light or planning daylight: which risk is which
A private right to light and the planning daylight assessment use different measurements, different decision makers and different remedies. Permission is no defence to an injunction.
Statement of common ground: what it agrees and what it cannot
A statement of common ground fixes the uncontested facts before an inquiry, hearing or local plan examination, so the inspector can concentrate on the two or three judgements that are really in dispute.
Nitrogen dioxide modelling and model verification
An unverified road model tells you what the equations produce, not what the street does. Verification is where every competent reviewer starts.
Bus service contributions and what a council can require
A round number per dwelling with no working behind it struggles against all three tests in regulation 122. Ask what the money buys before agreeing it.
Soft play centres: parking demand and means of escape
Soft play fails on parking peaks nobody surveyed and on an occupancy figure lower than the business plan assumed. Both are answerable before you sign a lease.
Biodiversity net gain or licence compensation for habitat
Both regimes end with an ecologist creating habitat, but they are owed to different bodies and tested differently. Satisfying one does not satisfy the other.
Certificate of immunity from listing
Five years of certainty that a building will not be listed. It leaves conservation area controls untouched, and applying can result in the building being listed.
Solar farms on best and most versatile land
Grades 1, 2 and 3a are best and most versatile. The published maps do not split Grade 3, which is why a site specific survey settles most solar applications.
Construction dust risk assessment to the IAQM method
A site can be high risk for trackout and low risk for construction. Scoring the four activities separately is what the method is for.
Dropped kerb refusals on a classified road
Permitted development for a new access stops at classified roads. Visibility splays and turning space on the plot decide most of these applications.
Bakeries and early morning deliveries: hours conditions
A business that cannot bake before 7am is not a bakery. Separate production, opening and delivery hours in the application, and evidence each one.
What a Basement Impact Assessment has to cover
Screening, scoping, investigation then impact assessment, across land stability, groundwater and surface water. Skipping a stage is how these get refused.
Ground source boreholes: licences, permits and programme
Planning is rarely the obstacle for ground source heat pumps. Abstraction licensing, groundwater permits and drilling consents are what govern the programme.
What an Air Quality Management Area declaration means
An AQMA says a national objective is unlikely to be met somewhere inside a boundary. It changes the evidence expected, not whether development can happen.
When a council asks for junction capacity modelling
Almost every argument about a capacity model is an argument about its inputs. Agree the assessment years, the growth factors and the committed list first.
Tattoo studios, barbers and the sui generis question
The Use Classes Order never names tattoo studios. Most councils treat them as sui generis, and only a certificate of lawfulness settles it for a given unit.
Evacuation lifts and inclusive escape in planning layouts
A refuge that eats the stair width is not a refuge. Inclusive escape has to be resolved while the core is still being drawn, not at Building Regulations stage.
Heat network zoning and the connection requirement
Inside a designated zone, connection becomes an obligation rather than a preference. Where no pipe exists yet, safeguarding has to be physical, not written.
Odour and separation distance for anaerobic digestion
Digestion happens in a sealed vessel. The odour comes from reception, clamps and digestate storage, and modelling rather than distance decides the case.
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