PlanScope Blog – Page 288
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 288
9081 articlesSelf-build against residential extension CIL exemption
The whole-dwelling self-build exemption and the annex and extension exemptions use different forms and carry different clawback rules. Here is the sequence that keeps the relief valid.
How to get planning permission for modular classrooms
Schools have limited permitted development rights for extra accommodation, and most modular classroom schemes exceed them. What a temporary permission involves, when Sport England must be consulted, and which documents the council expects.
Documents for demolition in a conservation area
Since 2013, demolishing an unlisted building in a conservation area needs planning permission for relevant demolition. Here is the evidence bundle councils ask for, from heritage assessment to bat surveys and the demolition method.
Deemed consent for advertisements: what it covers
Deemed consent grants advertisement consent automatically to whole classes of display under the 2007 Regulations. Here is what falls inside a class, what the standard conditions require, and when express consent is needed instead.
Which reports riverside flats in Flood Zone 3a need
Dwellings are more vulnerable development, so Flood Zone 3a means the exception test as well as the sequential test. Here is the evidence base, in the order it has to be produced.
Severability: when part of a permission survives
Severability decides whether an unlawful condition can be removed without destroying the permission it sits on. The test turns on whether the condition is fundamental to what was granted.
What an archaeological desk-based assessment must cover
A desk-based assessment establishes what is known, what is likely and what survives. Here is the content a county archaeologist expects, and why truncation analysis often decides the outcome.
Degradation before the baseline: the 2020 provision
The biodiversity gain rules contain a backstop. Clear habitat without consent after 30 January 2020 and the baseline is measured as it stood before the clearance, not as the site is found.
Woodland felling licences and when planning is not enough
A felling licence is a separate consent from planning permission, and the exemption for permitted development is narrower than most landowners assume. Here is where the line falls.
Class Q barn conversions after the 2024 amendments
The 2024 amendments raised Class Q to ten dwellings and 1,000 square metres, moved the qualifying date and added a limited rear extension. The conversion test is unchanged and still decides most schemes.
Specifying a topographical survey for a planning application
Most resurveys are caused by three omissions: an arbitrary datum, too small an extent, and missing invert levels. Here is how to write the brief once and get a survey that serves the whole application.
A community engagement plan for a contested scheme
Consultation after the design is fixed is presentation, not engagement. Here is how to plan, run and report community engagement on a scheme that is going to be opposed.
Biodiversity net gain against nutrient neutrality
Biodiversity net gain is measured in habitat units over 30 years. Nutrient neutrality is measured in kilograms of nitrogen and phosphorus, in perpetuity, and it can stop a permission being granted at all.
How to get planning permission for a gym in a railway arch
A gym is Class E(d). Whether you need permission depends on what the arch was before. After that, structure-borne noise from weight drops is the issue that decides the application.
Report bundle for flats on a former car park
A car park looks like an easy site until the ground investigation comes back. Here is the report bundle a residential scheme on hardstanding usually needs, and the order to commission it in.
Prior approval: what the council may and may not consider
Prior approval is not a planning application. The permission comes from the General Permitted Development Order, and the council may only consider the matters that class actually lists.
Registered parks and gardens in the planning process
There is no such thing as registered park consent. Protection comes through planning policy and a distinct set of consultees, and the assessment turns on designed views rather than on individual buildings.
Habitat condition assessment: scoring grassland in the metric
Condition is a multiplier in the statutory biodiversity metric, so a single criterion can change the units a parcel carries. Here is how the sheets are applied to grassland and what evidence stands up to review.
Street trees, highway works and utility trenching
Trees in the public highway belong to the highway authority and are managed under a different regime from trees on your site. Here is how trenching, adoption agreements and removal actually work.
Class A rear extension limits and the larger home scheme
Under Class A of the GPDO a single-storey rear extension can project 3 metres, or 4 metres on a detached house, within height limits. The larger home extension scheme doubles those figures if the council does not object.
Odour assessment competence and olfactometry explained
Odour assessment uses a human panel, not an instrument. Here is how sampling and olfactometry work, what dispersion modelling adds, and how to judge whether the person writing your report is competent to do it.
Writing the alternatives considered section of a statement
Most planning applications carry no duty to consider alternatives. EIA development does, and so do a handful of policy tests. Here is how to tell them apart and how to write the section.
Habitats regulations assessment against EIA: what differs
EIA is a procedural duty to inform a decision. Habitats regulations assessment is a substantive prohibition unless integrity can be secured. The difference decides how mitigation is treated and who signs the conclusion.
How to get planning permission for a recording studio
A recording studio application turns on two things: which use class the operation falls into, and whether the building envelope can hold music noise in at night. Here is how councils approach both.
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