PlanScope Blog – Page 30

Development adjoining the railway

Planning permission and the railway operator's asset protection approval are separate tracks with separate timetables, and the asset protection track is usually the longer one.

Injunctions to restrain a breach of planning control

Only a local planning authority can seek a planning injunction, and the court applies its own discretion rather than enforcing the council's view.

Viability, Obligations and Commercial7 min read

Section 278 agreements and the cost nobody budgeted

The works cost is the part everyone budgets. Design check fees, supervision, bonds, commuted sums, traffic orders and undertaker diversions are the part that hurts.

Fire, Structural and Basements7 min read

Deep piling in a coalfield referral area

Inside a coalfield referral area the investigation precedes the foundation design, and a permit precedes the investigation, because the workings beneath your site are not yours.

Energy, Sustainability and Carbon7 min read

Energy statements for a conversion where fabric cannot change

Where the existing fabric cannot be improved, the energy case rests on services, controls and ventilation, and it has to be evidenced element by element.

Commercial Occupiers7 min read

Open storage in a commercial yard and the curtilage question

The test is not area or tidiness. It is whether the storage still serves the building's use, or whether it would carry on if the building use stopped.

Development near a major hazard site or pipeline

Inside a consultation distance, the advice depends on the zone and on how sensitive your proposal is. It is the population you are adding that gets assessed, not the site.

Viability, Obligations and Commercial7 min read

Monitoring fees and the statutory tests for obligations

A monitoring fee has to be fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development and reflect the authority's estimated monitoring cost. Most draft fees have never been tested against that.

Varying or withdrawing an enforcement notice

An authority can withdraw an enforcement notice at any time, or relax its requirements, under section 173A. An inspector can correct and vary it on appeal. Which route applies changes everything.

Fire, Structural and Basements7 min read

Mansard roofs, loading and the structural check

A mansard adds a storey of load to walls built for a pitched roof. Open a trial pit and appraise the structure before commissioning drawings.

Energy, Sustainability and Carbon7 min read

Evidencing an embodied carbon target in a local plan policy

The policy sets the target in kilogrammes of carbon dioxide equivalent per square metre, but the structural scheme decides whether you reach it.

Heritage and Archaeology7 min read

Lighting a listed building without harming it

The fixings need listed building consent, columns need planning permission, and bats using the building can decide the design. How to get all three right at once.

Commercial Occupiers7 min read

Installing customer EV chargers on a commercial car park

The chargers themselves usually fall within Part 2 permitted development rights. The substation, the enclosure, the canopy and the totem are what need applications.

Proving the date a planning application was received

The determination period runs from the day after a valid application is received, not from the day it arrived. Here is the evidence that settles the argument.

Varying a planning condition imposed by an inspector

The inspector has no continuing role once the appeal is decided. A section 73 application to the local planning authority is how an appeal condition gets varied.

Viability, Obligations and Commercial7 min read

First Homes and the discount mechanics

A First Home is sold at least 30 per cent below market value with the discount held in perpetuity on title, and the price after discount must not exceed £250,000, or £420,000 in London.

Fire, Structural and Basements7 min read

Escape from a basement dwelling and the window you need

A basement bedroom needs an escape window with 0.33 square metres of clear openable area and a usable light well, or a protected stairway to a final exit.

Energy, Sustainability and Carbon7 min read

BREEAM credits usually fixed before planning submission

A pre-assessment is an estimate, not a certificate. The transport, ecology, surface water and daylight credits are largely settled before the application is submitted.

Heritage and Archaeology7 min read

Security shutters on a historic shopfront and the alternatives

The box above the fascia and the rails across the pilasters cause more refusals than the shutter itself. What works instead on a listed or conservation area shopfront.

Commercial Occupiers7 min read

Changing a Class E unit to a hot food takeaway

Hot food takeaways were left outside the use classes in 2020, so every change from Class E needs planning permission. Concentration and school proximity policies usually decide the application.

Serving notice on a tenant under ownership certificate B

A tenant only has to be served with notice of a planning application if their lease has seven years or more left to run, or if they are an agricultural tenant. Here is how certificate B works in practice.