PlanScope Blog – Page 280
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 280
9103 articlesFire service access and water supplies at planning stage
Approved Document B sets the geometry a fire appliance needs, and that geometry is a site layout constraint. Sorting it after permission costs units.
BREEAM credits realistically available at planning stage
Site selection, accessibility, ecology and drainage decide most of a BREEAM score before any product is specified. The procurement credits are the ones that slip.
Odour control for a hot food takeaway extraction system
Hot food takeaways are refused on the flue far more often than on the use. Odour risk scoring, abatement stages and termination height decide the outcome.
Bin storage and carry distances the collection crew accepts
Waste officers object late and for predictable reasons. The 30 m carry distance, the 25 m collection distance and refuse vehicle geometry decide most bin store layouts.
Repairs notices and urgent works on neglected buildings
Neglect of a listed building is not an offence, but two powers in the 1990 Act let a council step in: urgent holding repairs, and a repairs notice leading to compulsory purchase.
Extraction and odour control for a nail bar or salon
A salon rarely needs permission for the use. The external duct is what gets refused, and the discharge point next to a flat window usually decides it.
Unauthorised works to a listed building
A planning breach ages out. A listed building breach does not. That single difference changes how due diligence has to be done on any listed property purchase.
Hand car washes: contamination, water and use class
Deal with the drainage first. Without a foul connection under a trade effluent consent and a full retention separator, a hand car wash is not lawful however the planning application is written.
The lighting section of a landscape strategy
Lighting and planting occupy the same space and are usually designed by different people. Overlay them on one drawing and most of the conflicts resolve before a condition is ever written.
Writing a Fire Statement: the sections and the evidence
A Fire Statement is a form completed by someone with fire engineering competence and supported by dimensioned drawings. Most inadequate ones fail on the drawings rather than the text.
TM59 against Approved Document O: which applies
Part O is checked by building control against prescribed inputs. TM59 is the method planning authorities reference, often with future weather. Build one model and run it twice.
Vibration from construction and BS 6472 response levels
Vibration people find intolerable is roughly an order of magnitude below the level that damages a house. Almost every complaint is about annoyance and almost every claim is about damage.
Car-free and permit-free development secured by agreement
Car-free is what you build. Permit-free is what occupiers can apply for afterwards. The second needs a section 106 obligation and a controlled parking zone that actually covers the site.
Lime mortar, repointing and why cement is refused
Cement mortar is harder and less permeable than the brick around it, so the wall wears instead of the joint. Here is how to specify a lime repointing job and when it needs listed building consent.
Cooling plant and noise for a server room in an office
Comms room condensers run at three in the morning, when the background sound level at the nearest flats is at its lowest. That single fact shapes the whole application.
The ground gas section of a contaminated land assessment
Gas monitoring runs for months rather than weeks, and the rounds have to catch falling atmospheric pressure. Programme it before you buy the plot, not after permission is granted.
What the Building Safety Regulator checks at Gateway One
At Planning Gateway One the regulator comments as a statutory consultee rather than approving a design. Most of its requests are for dimensioned information that was missing from the drawings.
Pre-redevelopment audits and reuse targets
Most pre-redevelopment audits arrive after the demolition package is priced, so they record what was thrown away. Run the audit while the design is still moving and the targets become real.
Construction noise, BS 5228 and section 61 consent
A section 61 prior consent fixes the noise terms for construction works before they start. Without one, the council sets those terms reactively, after the first complaint.
Construction traffic routing agreements with the highway authority
The routing plan is the part of a construction traffic management plan the highway authority actually reads. Agree the route before submission and the condition discharges in weeks rather than months.
Shopfronts in conservation areas: what councils control
A fascia change in a conservation area can need three separate consents. Here is what each one tests, what a shopfront design guide asks for, and the evidence that gets a modern front approved.
The equality analysis section of an equalities impact assessment
The equality analysis is where an equalities impact assessment earns its place. It names the protected characteristics the scheme engages, cites ward-level evidence, and ties every effect to mitigation the permission can secure.
Assessing ecology without access to adjoining land
A neighbour is not obliged to let your ecologist in. Desk records, boundary observation and precautionary assumptions can carry an application, provided the limitations are stated plainly rather than hidden.
Pavement seating: licences and when planning is needed
A pavement licence covers removable tables and chairs on the public highway. It does not authorise decking, fixed canopies or seating on your own forecourt, and those are planning questions.
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