PlanScope Blog – Page 284
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 284
9092 articlesBurial grounds and human remains in development
Planning permission does not authorise disturbing burials. The licensing regimes, notice periods, archaeological requirements and consultation that apply instead.
Wintering bird surveys and the October to March window
Wintering bird surveys run October to March and cannot be compressed. What they cover, how many winters are expected, and how disturbance is assessed.
Circular Economy Statements: who needs one and what it covers
A London requirement rather than a national one. What a Circular Economy Statement covers, how it is evidenced, and how it must line up with the carbon assessment.
A structure for a design and access statement that works
How to organise a design and access statement so a case officer can lift the argument straight into the report, and what to leave out of it.
The tree constraints plan in a BS 5837 survey
Categories, root protection areas, crown spreads and shade, drawn before the layout. How the constraints plan is produced and what happens when it arrives too late.
Designing cycle infrastructure to LTN 1/20
What LTN 1/20 expects from cycle routes inside and adjoining a development site, the drawings that evidence it, and how a departure from the standard is argued.
Archaeological archives and deposition charges
The archive stage runs long after the excavation ends. Ownership, museum acceptance, deposition charges and condition discharge, set out for a development budget.
A checklist for a travel plan with measurable targets
Baseline, targets, coordinator, monitoring and remedial triggers. The five parts of a travel plan that decide whether it survives past the decision notice.
Otters and holts in riverside development
Holts and couches are protected whether occupied or not, and otter cubs arrive in any month. What that means for survey timing, working distances and licensing.
Whole life carbon assessments for referable schemes
What a whole life carbon assessment has to cover for a scheme referable to the Mayor, from module structure and benchmarks to the post-construction submission.
The mitigation hierarchy section of an ecological report
Avoid, mitigate, compensate is a sequence with a refusal at the end of it. Here is how each step is evidenced, secured and kept distinct from biodiversity net gain.
Arguing for parking below the council standard
The four parts of a parking reduction case that highway officers accept, from measured accessibility and census car ownership to permit-free agreements.
Advertisement consent in a conservation area
Conservation area status cuts back the deemed consent classes that let shops sign up without applying. Here is what needs consent, what to submit and how illumination is judged.
Bats in trees: roost features and aerial inspection
Ground assessment, aerial inspection, suitability categories and licensing for bat roost features in trees, with the wording that separates no evidence from no bats.
The energy hierarchy in a London energy statement
How to argue each stage of the London Plan energy hierarchy in an energy statement, including the monitoring duty that applicants most often underestimate.
A worked overshadowing test for a garden
A step by step sunlight on ground test for a rear garden, using the BRE 209 equinox criterion, with an illustrative calculation and the changes that recover a failing result.
The baseline section of a preliminary ecological appraisal
The baseline is the part of a preliminary ecological appraisal a council ecologist audits first. Here is what it has to record, and how limitations should be declared.
A scoping checklist for a noise survey brief
Most disputes about noise evidence come from a survey that measured the wrong thing in the wrong week. A checklist for briefing an acoustician before any equipment goes on site.
The residual risk section of a flood risk assessment
Residual risk is what happens when the mitigation fails. Breach assessment, warning lead times, the refuge or evacuation decision and the wording emergency planners accept.
Side return infill on a Victorian terrace
Side return infills are often permitted development, and the eaves height limit near the boundary decides the roof form. Daylight, party walls and build over agreements do the rest.
Amending or challenging a list entry
List entries can be corrected, amended or, rarely, removed. What evidence each route needs, why the description does not limit what is protected, and the risks of asking.
Net gain on outline permissions and phased schemes
Phased schemes need an overall biodiversity gain plan plus a plan for each phase. How baselines hold across a long build out, how units are allocated and what happens when phases are sold.
Cycle parking standards for a London application
London Plan cycle parking standards are minimums by land use. How the residential calculation works, what the store dimensions have to allow for, and what boroughs add on top.
A checklist for a biodiversity gain plan submission
The gain plan is submitted after permission and before work starts. Which exemptions apply to small and self-build sites, what evidence the plan needs and why plans get refused.
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