PlanScope Blog – Page 305
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 305
8939 articlesSpeed surveys and how recorded speeds change a scheme
The 85th percentile speed, not the speed limit, sets the visibility splay a highway authority asks for. This covers survey equipment, duration, placement and how to convert the result into geometry.
Nutrient neutrality: what an applicant actually supplies
The legal duty sits with the council, but the applicant does the arithmetic. This sets out the nutrient budget inputs, the mitigation routes, and the evidence an authority needs before it can grant permission.
Householder application: building the document list
Article 7 of the Development Management Procedure Order sets a short national list for every planning application. Here is what it contains, what a local list adds, and why most householder submissions are returned.
Reports needed for a roof terrace on a flat
Flats have no permitted development rights, so a roof terrace is always a planning application. This sets out the sightline analysis, screening detail, noise and structural evidence that decides it.
Material start: what counts as beginning development
A material operation under section 56 of the 1990 Act is what keeps a planning permission alive. This sets out the statutory list, the effect of conditions precedent, and the evidence to record on the day.
Military safeguarding and explosives storage zones
Military aerodromes, technical sites and explosives storage areas are safeguarded through deposited maps and a statutory consultation. Here is what each zone controls and how objections are resolved.
Veteran and ancient trees: buffers and the harm test
Ancient and veteran trees sit outside the usual root protection area calculation. This explains how they are identified, the buffer the standing advice expects, and what a compensation strategy has to contain.
Electric vehicle charging under Part S and planning
Part S of the Building Regulations now sets the baseline for electric vehicle charging in new buildings. Here is what it requires, how the connection cost cap works, and which arguments still belong in the planning submission.
Hedgerows: the 1997 Regulations and biodiversity units
Two regimes govern hedgerow removal and they run on different clocks. This explains the removal notice procedure, the important hedgerow criteria and how hedgerow units behave in the statutory biodiversity metric.
What goes in a Construction Traffic Management Plan
A Construction Traffic Management Plan is judged by the highway engineer discharging the condition, not by a planning officer. Here is what each section has to contain and where submissions usually come back.
Reports needed for a self build plot with an access track
One dwelling at the end of a private track still needs eight or nine supporting documents. This sets out what each one covers, which season it has to be done in, and where self build applications usually fail validation.
Building preservation notice: emergency cover for a building
When an unlisted building of real interest is about to be demolished, a council can serve a building preservation notice and treat it as listed for six months. Here is the test, the procedure and the compensation risk that makes authorities cautious.
Stopping up and diverting a highway for development
A stopping up order is the item most likely to sit on the critical path of a development and the one least likely to be programmed properly. The objection window is where the risk lives.
Reptile translocation: receptor sites and capture effort
Widespread reptiles are not licensed, so a translocation stands or falls on the method statement. The receptor site is the part that gets least attention and causes most failures.
Reports needed for a rooftop plant enclosure
Rooftop plant looks like a small job and generates a full evidence pack. Noise is the decisive report, and the structural and access questions shape the enclosure before the planner sees it.
Root protection area: how the BS 5837 figure is derived
The root protection area is a calculated minimum, not a measured rooting zone. Knowing how the figure is derived tells you where there is room to argue and where there is not.
Local fee setting powers and what they mean for applicants
Application fees are national and indexed. Pre-application advice, performance agreements and monitoring charges are not, and that is where budgets already vary most between authorities.
Coastal Change Management Areas and time-limited permission
Inside a Coastal Change Management Area the question is not whether development is acceptable but for how long. Permissions carry an end date and a removal condition.
Crown reduction, thinning and pollarding: what officers accept
Tree officers refuse far more applications for wording than for the work itself. Knowing what each recognised operation does, and what it is called, is most of the battle.
When a storage yard stops being B8 and becomes sui generis
Open storage sits comfortably in Class B8 until something is done to the material. Sorting, breaking or processing changes the class, and the Use Classes Order names some yards as sui generis outright.
Measuring accessibility: PTAL and what to use elsewhere
PTAL measures how much public transport is near the door, not where it goes. Knowing what the index leaves out is what lets you argue accessibility properly, in London and outside it.
Conditions that remove permitted development on new estates
New estates routinely carry a condition stripping out householder permitted development rights. It binds every later owner, and removing it means an application of its own.
Hazel dormice: survey effort and nest tube method
A dormouse survey is the longest terrestrial mammal survey in the UK evidence base. The effort index cannot be compressed, so it sets the programme for any scheme touching hedgerow or woodland edge.
Reports needed for a gym in a light industrial unit
An industrial unit is the natural home for a gym and the hardest place to get one consented. The two obstacles are employment land policy and impact noise from dropped weights.
Not sure which documents your council will ask for?
Enter your postcode and PlanScope recommends the right reports for your project, then drafts them in minutes.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope