PlanScope Blog – Page 285
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 285
9090 articlesAgreeing a transport assessment scoping note
A scoping note agreed in writing with the highway authority fixes the study area, assessment years and methodology before any survey is commissioned. What to include and how to get it signed off.
Hazardous substances consultation zones explained
Applications near a hazardous installation or a high pressure pipeline are referred to the Health and Safety Executive. How the zones work, how advice is given and how to design around it.
Building preservation notices and spot listing
A building preservation notice treats an unlisted building as listed for six months while the Secretary of State decides. How the power works and how listing requests are made.
Biodiversity net gain on a section 73 application
A section 73 permission is a new permission, so the biodiversity gain condition has to be considered again. Which variations are exempt, when the metric must be rerun and how to sequence the work.
Car-free development and residential parking policy
Car-free means no general residential parking plus a section 106 clause barring occupiers from parking permits. How PTAL drives the standard and what can still be argued.
A photographic viewpoint schedule for landscape work
Viewpoint photography is the evidence base for a landscape and visual assessment. The selection process, the recording conventions and the presentation that survives scrutiny.
Obscure glazing conditions and the levels that apply
Obscure glazing conditions are the standard council answer to an overlooking objection. The obscuration levels, the 1.7 metre opening rule and what happens when the glass is replaced.
Planning permission for a cemetery or burial ground
A cemetery or churchyard extension stands or falls on the Environment Agency's groundwater assessment. What the separation criteria cover, how to time the ground investigation and what else the application needs.
Choosing comparable TRICS sites for a trip rate
Trip rates stand or fall on the comparability of the surveyed sites behind them. Which filters change the answer, how much filtering is too much, and how to record the selection.
Common land, village greens and section 38 consent
Fencing, building or surfacing registered common land needs consent under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006, decided separately from planning permission. Deregistration, exchange land and green registration explained.
Urgent works and repairs notices explained
Section 54 urgent works stop a neglected listed building getting worse. A section 48 repairs notice opens the way to compulsory purchase. How both work and what an owner can do.
Watercourse units and river condition assessment
The statutory metric treats watercourses as their own module, so area habitat units cannot cover a watercourse shortfall. What a river condition assessment involves and how to programme it.
Play space provision and the 10 square metre standard
The London Plan sets a minimum of 10 m² of playable space per child for schemes of ten or more homes. The child yield calculation, the age band distances and what boroughs count.
A template structure for a construction management plan
A construction management plan is a condition document. This is the section order officers read it in, from compound layout and routing to wheel washing, noisy operations and complaints.
Juliet balconies, balconies and the overlooking test
Class A of the GPDO excludes balconies, verandas and raised platforms, so a balcony on a house needs permission. A Juliet balcony with no floor to stand on is treated differently.
Planning permission for a GP surgery or health centre
Health centres sit in Class E(e), so moving into an existing Class E unit is not development. The application turns on parking numbers, step-free access, waste storage and plant noise.
Water neutrality and how a scheme proves it
In a water neutrality area, total water use after development must be no greater than before. That means a water budget, a tight fittings specification and an offset delivered somewhere else in the same supply zone.
Certificates of lawfulness of proposed works
Unauthorised works to a listed building are a strict liability offence. A certificate of lawfulness of proposed works converts an officer's opinion into a binding confirmation that consent is not required.
A checklist for ownership certificates and notices
The ownership certificate is the shortest part of a planning application and the one most likely to invalidate it. Here is how to check title, choose the right certificate and serve notice properly.
Planning permission for a school expansion
School expansions have strong policy support and two hard constraints: the playing field that Sport England protects, and the twenty minutes at the school gate that the highway authority worries about.
Planning permission for extra care or retirement housing
Older persons accommodation sits on a line between a care home and a block of flats. Which side it falls determines affordable housing, levy liability and space standards, and the evidence is the care model.
Planning permission for a hand car wash
Car washing sits outside the use classes, so almost every hand car wash needs planning permission. The application turns on where the wash water goes, how loud the equipment is and whether cars queue on the highway.
Mine entries, permits and coalfield planning conditions
Coalfield sites carry a second consent regime alongside planning. What a development high risk area means for foundation design, why drilling needs a permit, and how the conditions actually discharge.
National Landscapes and the duty on decision makers
The rebrand changed nothing in law, but the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act did. What the duty on public bodies now asks, and how a scheme in a National Landscape builds its landscape evidence.
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