PlanScope Blog – Page 304
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 304
8945 articlesAn applicant's community involvement statement on a small site
Consultation on a small scheme is not required by statute, and doing it properly still changes the outcome. The document is a record of what you did and what you changed.
Temporary stop notices and stop notices explained
A temporary stop notice can halt work the day it appears on the fence. A stop notice needs an enforcement notice behind it. The difference decides what a landlord should do next.
Flood resistant and resilient construction: what to specify
Below about 600 mm you can try to keep water out. Above that, the sensible strategy is letting it in and designing so the house dries out and comes back into use quickly.
Radon affected areas and what the maps mean for a new build
Radon protection is decided by a property-specific report and Approved Document C, not by the planning application. Getting the report early changes the foundation design, not just the paperwork.
High hedges complaints and the Anti-social Behaviour Act
The high hedges regime is separate from tree preservation orders and from planning. It covers evergreen hedges over two metres, and the council can only act after you have tried to settle it yourself.
Places of worship: use class, capacity and parking evidence
A move from a shop or industrial unit to a place of worship crosses a use class boundary, so permission is needed. The case is usually won or lost on peak attendance parking evidence.
Lighting design for bats: guidance, lux levels and drawings
Artificial light is an ecological impact in its own right. Designing it out is cheaper at layout stage than arguing about it after the ecologist has reviewed your drawings.
Construction Management Plan contents for a housing scheme
A Construction Management Plan is the document that gets returned most often for being too general. Here is the section by section content councils actually approve.
The tilted balance and when it actually applies
The tilted balance is not a shortcut to permission. It changes who has to prove what, and a surprising number of appeals turn on whether it was engaged at all.
The flood sequential test for a single plot in Flood Zone 2
One new house in Flood Zone 2 is not minor development, so the sequential test applies. The argument is almost always about the area of search and what counts as reasonably available.
Curtilage listing: what section 1(5) actually catches
A barn you never thought was listed may be. Section 1(5) pulls structures within the curtilage into the listing, and the consequences for consent are the same as for the principal building.
Trees, clay soils and subsidence in planning terms
Subsidence is one of the few arguments that will persuade a council to allow a protected tree to be felled, and it is also the one most often made without the evidence to support it.
Nurseries and childcare: use class and the practical tests
A day nursery falls within Class E(f), so a move from another Class E use needs no planning application. The conditions, parking evidence and play space are where these schemes are won or lost.
Answering a highway authority holding objection
A holding objection is an invitation to supply something, not a refusal. The trick is working out whether the highway officer wants evidence, a design change or a condition.
When a planning condition requires an ecological clerk of works
An ecological clerk of works condition puts a named ecologist on site during clearance and construction. Here is what the role covers, who is competent to hold it, and what it costs.
The 45 degree rule for rear extensions: a worked example
The 45 degree rule is a screening tool in council householder design guides, not national policy. Here is how the lines are actually drawn, and what the test cannot tell you.
The planning unit: the baseline for any change of use
The planning unit fixes the baseline against which any material change of use is measured. Get it wrong and the whole assessment collapses, whichever way it was argued.
Scheduled monument consent: a separate consent regime
Scheduled monument consent runs entirely separately from planning permission and is decided by the Secretary of State. This sets out which works are caught, what the class consents cover and what an application needs.
Invasive species on site and the law developers meet
Invasive plants on a development site raise criminal, waste and civil liability questions at once. This covers Schedule 9, soil classification, the treatment routes and how to programme them against the build.
On-farm incineration and animal by-product disposal
An on-farm incinerator clears three regimes, not one. This covers when planning permission is needed, how animal by-product approval works, the capacity thresholds that bring in a permit, and the alternatives.
Design and Access Statement for listed building consent
Listed building consent applications always need a design and access statement, whatever their scale. This sets out a structure that runs significance, impact and justification in the order a conservation officer reads them.
Reports needed for a shopfront alteration in a high street
Shopfront works split across two or three consent regimes with different tests. This sets out when permission is needed, how advertisement consent works, and what a designated frontage application should contain.
Farm shops: when produce sales become a retail use
There is no statutory percentage that turns a farm gate stall into a shop. This sets out the character test, the permitted development route under Class R, the highway evidence and the conditions councils impose.
Transport contributions and the tests obligations must meet
Transport contributions have to be necessary, directly related and proportionate. This sets out how the tests apply to bus, cycle and junction asks, how to calculate a fair share and how to resist the rest.
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