PlanScope Blog – Page 290
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 290
9065 articlesSigning off a draft: the reviewer's declaration
A signature on a report you did not write carries the same weight as one on a report you did. How to classify inputs, limit scope honestly, and know when further survey must come before sign-off.
Telecommunications development under Part 16
Part 16 of the GPDO 2015 lets code operators install masts and apparatus with prior approval of siting and appearance rather than full permission. That boundary decides which objections carry weight.
Modifying a root protection area on a constrained plot
BS 5837:2012 lets a root protection area be offset where roots are unlikely to be present, provided the total area stays the same. Here is the investigation evidence that justifies it and the way to present the arithmetic.
Class Q agricultural conversions after the 2024 changes
The 2024 amendments raised Class Q to 10 dwellings and 1,000 square metres, capped each dwelling at 150 square metres and added a rear extension right. The conditions that decide whether the right exists at all have not softened.
A worked CIL liability calculation
The CIL formula in Schedule 1 to the 2010 Regulations is arithmetic. This walks through gross internal area, the existing floorspace deduction, indexation and the forms, with an illustrative worked calculation on a small residential scheme.
Committee decision against a delegated decision
The scheme of delegation decides whether a planning officer or the planning committee determines an application. The legal weight is the same, but the process, the timing and your chance to speak are not.
How to get planning permission for a cattery
Cat boarding falls outside every use class, so a cattery always needs planning permission. Odour and waste management decide most applications, and the animal licensing standards should shape the drawings before the planning application is drawn.
What a small HMO application needs in an Article 4 area
Where an Article 4 direction has withdrawn Class L permitted development rights, turning a house into a small HMO needs a full planning application. Here is the evidence councils expect and the order to assemble it in.
Breach of condition notice: the no-appeal route
A breach of condition notice is served under section 187A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and cannot be appealed to the Planning Inspectorate. Here is what it binds you to, the two statutory defences, and the routes that actually work.
A travel plan: section by section
A travel plan is a management document with targets, a named coordinator and a monitoring regime. Section by section, what it needs to survive monitoring.
What a professional review of a draft report covers
Signing a review transfers the reader's reliance from the drafter to you. What a review instruction should cover, how to record it, and when to decline.
Non-determination appeal against an extension of time
Appealing non-determination takes the decision away from the council entirely, on the scheme as submitted. Agreeing an extension usually trades the fee refund for a negotiation you can still win.
Planning permission for a roadside coffee kiosk
Trading from the same pitch week after week is a material change of use, whatever the trailer does. Highway safety decides most roadside kiosk applications.
Reports for a basement under a terraced house
Excavating between two Victorian terraces on shallow footings means evidence on stability, groundwater, surface water and construction traffic, plus a party wall process running alongside.
Section 215 notice: untidy land and buildings
Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets a council require steps to remedy land that harms the amenity of the area, with no breach of planning control required.
Electric vehicle charging: what permitted development covers
The charging classes in Part 2 of the GPDO cover an outlet on a wall and an upstand in existing off-street parking. Substations, canopies and hubs fall outside them.
Checking professional indemnity cover before instructing
Professional indemnity cover is the ceiling on what you can recover from a consultant. How to read the certificate, why run-off matters, and what reliance letters actually give you.
Wastewater capacity constraints on development in NI
Wastewater treatment capacity is the constraint that stops Northern Ireland housing schemes. How to check it before buying a site, and the four routes when the network is full.
A biodiversity gain plan: section by section
The biodiversity gain plan is submitted after permission and before development begins. Section by section, what it must contain and where authorities refuse them.
Householder appeal against a full planning appeal
A refused extension goes to the householder appeals service: twelve weeks to lodge, written representations only, and no opportunity to add evidence later. Everything else uses the standard route.
Planning permission for a balcony on a flat
Flats have no permitted development rights, so every balcony needs permission. Overlooking decides most cases, and on buildings of 18 metres or more, fire decides the rest.
Report bundle for a single dwelling on an infill plot
A single dwelling is a minor application, and the pack is the national validation list plus the council's local list plus whatever the site constraints trigger. Usually six to nine documents.
Sensitive area: the EIA definition that removes thresholds
Sensitive area is defined in regulation 2(1) of the EIA Regulations 2017. If any part of a development sits inside one, the Schedule 2 thresholds stop applying and screening becomes unavoidable.
The pooling restriction removal and what it changed
Regulation 123(3) once capped at five the number of obligations that could fund one infrastructure project. Its removal in 2019 changed what councils can collect, but not what they can require.
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