PlanScope Blog – Page 3
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 3
8377 articlesUsing an AI draft for pre-application submissions
Pre-application advice is bought officer time, so spend it on specific questions rather than on a policy appraisal. An AI draft can build the document, but the site facts and the questions are yours.
Healthcare contributions and the integrated care board ask
Most healthcare contribution requests fail either because they seek revenue funding or because the site lies outside the catchment they rely on. Test the evidence before you negotiate the figure.
Daylight in a conservation area: rooflights and sash geometry
Establish what the heritage duty permits in aperture, profile and position first, then model what it delivers. A daylight result based on glazing a conservation officer will not accept is worth nothing.
Micro-brewery and taproom in a light industrial unit
An illustrative walkthrough of a 450 square metre brewery with a taproom. Brewing may stay within light industrial use, but a drinking establishment is sui generis, and that is where the application turns.
Resubmission fee exemptions and whether one applies to you
The repeat application fee exemption in the 2012 Fees Regulations was removed for applications made on or after 6 December 2023. Other exemptions survive, including the Article 4 one, and they are routinely missed.
Planning permission for a gym in a vacant retail unit
Shops and indoor fitness both sit in Class E, so the use change is not development. What decides a gym conversion is an old retail condition, structure-borne noise from free weights, and the works to the shopfront.
Reports for a nursery in a former community hall
A community hall sits in Class F2 and a day nursery in Class E(f), so the change needs permission. The reports that decide it turn on the drop-off peak and on how children's voices are assessed.
Securing biodiversity gain for thirty years
The thirty year securing arrangement outlives the development and has to survive the land changing hands. Section 106 and conservation covenants behave differently, and the choice matters.
Checking that pre-commencement conditions were discharged
Work started without the required approval may mean the permission was never lawfully implemented. Finding out is a register search and a careful read of two documents.
Keeping an audit trail for a machine-drafted document
The record of which source each fact was checked against, by whom and when, is what answers a cross-examination in a sentence instead of a week of reconstruction.
Measuring gross internal area for a levy calculation
Internal circulation, plant rooms and undercroft parking all count towards chargeable floorspace. A levy figure built from a net sales schedule gets corrected upwards.
Dual aspect and single aspect units in amenity policy
A scheme can pass every daylight test and still fail on aspect. Policy restricts north facing single aspect units outright, and the overheating rules bite on the same configuration.
Change of use of a pub to a house
Pub conversions always need permission and usually fail on the marketing price rather than the period. An illustrative village free house through marketing, viability and a committee decision.
Reports for a car body repair workshop near housing
Panel beating is impulsive noise and a spray booth discharges solvent vapour near bedroom windows. Those two facts set the evidence base for a body shop application beside housing.
The statutory biodiversity metric and the small sites version
The small sites metric is a simpler calculator, not a lower standard. The eligibility conditions disqualify more sites than self-builders expect, and the hedgerow account is where plots fail.
Checking whether a development is built as approved
The approved plans condition on a decision notice is the legal definition of what was allowed. Comparing the building against those specific drawings is mostly reading, not measuring.
Why a site visit cannot be skipped
Datasets give you flood zones and listing entries. Levels, boundary positions, neighbouring window heights and visibility splays come from standing on the plot with a tape measure.
Levy abatement where an earlier permission was implemented
Abatement credits levy already paid when a section 73 permission changes liability. The in-use floorspace deduction is a different mechanism with a different test, and the two are constantly confused.
Daylight to solar panels and whether planning protects it
There is no right to light for a roof-mounted array. Loss of generation is material but weakly weighted, so the objection needs a shading study and conventional amenity grounds alongside it.
Stables and a manege on a smallholding
Equestrian use sits outside the statutory definition of agriculture, so agricultural permitted development does not apply. An illustrative walkthrough of stables and an arena on a five hectare holding.
Reports for a climbing centre in a redundant church
A climbing centre in a redundant church turns on three documents: the heritage case for fixings into historic fabric, the fire strategy for a tall single volume, and the structural evidence behind both.
The Infrastructure Levy and what replaces the current charge
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 created powers for a value-based Infrastructure Levy, but none have been switched on. What that means for appraisals and land deals, as at October 2026.
Finding out about an application after the deadline
An objection sent after the consultation period but before the decision must still be considered. What matters is how far the application has already gone, and what remains once permission is granted.
Splitting the drafting from the judgement calls
Two thirds of a planning statement records facts that already exist. The rest is argument that carries liability. Knowing which is which decides where consultant time is worth paying for.
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