PlanScope Blog – Page 301
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 301
8972 articlesThe Infrastructure Levy powers and where they stand
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 created powers for a value-based Infrastructure Levy in England, but the operative detail sits in regulations still to be made. CIL and section 106 remain the system to appraise against.
The ecclesiastical exemption and church building works
Listed places of worship in five English denominations are exempt from listed building consent and use their own internal systems instead. Planning permission, scheduled monument consent and churchyard archaeology are untouched by that exemption.
Reptile presence surveys, refugia and receptor sites
Reptile surveys use artificial refugia checked over at least seven visits between April and October. The survey is the straightforward part. Finding, fencing and securing a receptor site is what shapes the programme and the budget.
Section 104 sewer adoption and the standards behind it
A section 104 agreement transfers your new sewers to the water company. Here is what it covers, the design standards applied, where sustainable drainage falls outside it, and how to sequence it against the build programme.
Opening a dental or medical practice on a high street
A dental surgery or clinic taking a former shop or office usually moves within Class E, so no permission is needed for the use itself. The compressor, the clinical waste store, the entrance and the signage are a different matter.
Flow control devices: orifice plates and vortex units
The device that sets your discharge rate decides the storage volume. How each type behaves, the small orifice problem, and what to check once it is installed.
Using an industrial unit as a place of worship
Two issues decide these applications: whether the plan protects the employment floorspace, and whether the estate can absorb the weekly parking peak.
Presenting net trip generation for a change of use
An illustrative net trip generation table and the notes around it: lawful use baseline, period selection, survey filters and how to handle a vacant building.
Scheme of delegation: committee or officer decision
The constitution decides whether your application is a desk decision or a public meeting. Referral triggers, call-in periods, objection counting and speaking rules.
What a winter tree survey can and cannot tell you
A January tree survey produces a usable constraints plan. What it cannot assess, which trees need a summer revisit, and how councils treat caveated reports.
Viability at appeal: how inspectors handle rival appraisals
Viability appeals turn on auditable models and narrowed issues, not on the profit line. How to prepare evidence that an inspector can follow and test.
Heritage partnership agreements and consent orders
Agreements and consent orders can remove repeat listed building consent applications. The statutory basis, the schedule that carries them, and when the effort pays.
Great crested newt eDNA surveys and the window
eDNA tells you whether newts are breeding in a pond this spring, not how many. The fixed window, habitat suitability scoring, access problems and residual risk.
Sustainable drainage on a householder extension
Extension drainage is a Building Regulations question more than a planning one. Soakaway sizing, separation distances, sewer connections and permeable paving.
Vehicle repair garage and MOT station planning
Repair workshops sit in Class B2, but the application turns on noise escape, spray booth extraction, oily drainage and where the waiting vehicles go.
Class Q prior approval: assembling the submission
Class Q submissions fail on missing evidence. The gateway tests, the agricultural history bundle, the structural conclusion officers need and the drawing pack.
Identifying veteran trees and setting the right buffer
Veteran status turns on features, not age. What to record, how the standing advice buffer is calculated, and what counts as deterioration years after completion.
Section 278 works and how they land in an appraisal
Highway works under section 278 arrive as nine cost lines, not one. What to budget, when the money leaves, and why the bond is released long after completion.
Demolishing a boundary wall at a listed building
A garden wall at a listed house is usually protected by the curtilage rule. What needs listed building consent, what counts as repair, and how to win a vehicle opening.
District level licensing for newts against the survey route
A conservation payment and strategic pond creation, or a spring survey season and a mitigation licence. How to choose between the two newt routes on evidence.
Pumped surface water systems and why councils resist them
Pumped drainage meets resistance on resilience, adoption and long-term cost. Where it is unavoidable, and what a submission needs to contain to succeed.
Converting a shop into a drive-through unit
Adding a lane and an order point takes a shop unit outside the use classes. What the highway authority, environmental health and the case officer each test.
Sustainability Statement structure for a minor scheme
What belongs in a sustainability statement on a five to nine unit scheme, and what belongs in the energy statement instead, with a section order and a commitments table.
Felling licences and where planning permission overlaps
A felling licence and planning consent are separate permissions. The exemptions, the 5 cubic metre allowance, restocking conditions and how the two regimes interact.
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