PlanScope Blog – Page 310
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 310
8899 articlesFirst Homes: the discount, the cap and the eligibility rules
A First Home is discounted market sale at 30 per cent or more below value, capped at £250,000 outside London, with the discount held in perpetuity by a section 106 agreement and a title restriction.
Part 14 Class J: solar panels on commercial roofs
Rooftop solar on a commercial building is permitted development under Class J, subject to projection limits and prior approval for siting, design and glare on neighbouring occupiers.
Package treatment plants and the general binding rules
The general binding rules let a package treatment plant discharge without a permit within set volume limits. Percolation results and the foul drainage hierarchy decide most rural applications.
Settlement boundaries and building just outside one
Cross a settlement boundary by a metre and the policy changes completely. The exceptions that work, the out of date plan argument, and the five documents a countryside site needs.
Daylight objections to a prior approval application
Prior approval limits the council to the matters the class names. Loss of neighbour light counts for upward extensions and not for Class MA, and knowing the difference changes how you object.
Dark skies and external lighting in the open countryside
Unlit countryside is the most sensitive lighting environment there is. Environmental zones, bat sensitive design and dark sky policies decide what you can install, and the conditions are enforceable.
Using the planning register to find comparable decisions
Search the development, not the address. How to build a testable proposition, filter by decision and date, read officer reports properly, and handle comparables that hurt your case.
Demolition in a conservation area: which consent applies
Demolition in a conservation area needs planning permission for relevant demolition, with a criminal offence attached. Elsewhere, Part 11 prior approval covers method and restoration only.
Vacant building credit and how councils apply it
The vacant building credit offsets existing vacant floorspace against an affordable housing requirement. Whether you get it usually turns on abandonment and on the adopted local plan.
Curtilage: what it means and where the boundary falls
Curtilage is not your garden, your fence line or your title boundary. It decides whether Part 1 permitted development rights reach the end of your plot, and the courts settle it on fact and degree.
Class S: an agricultural building as a school or nursery
Class S converts an agricultural building to a state-funded school or registered nursery under prior approval. The state-funded requirement and the 500 square metre cap explain why it is used so rarely.
Building over or near a public sewer: the agreement
Building over or within three metres of a public sewer needs the undertaker's agreement, separately from planning permission and building control. Here is the process and the timings.
World Heritage Sites: Outstanding Universal Value in practice
Schemes in a World Heritage Site are judged against the attributes that carry Outstanding Universal Value, not against townscape character. Here is how to read the statement and design to it.
Wedding and event venues on farms: the planning issues
A farm events business usually needs planning permission once it stops being ancillary to farming. Noise and highways decide most applications, and licensing does not substitute for either.
Consented baseline: assessing a neighbour's unbuilt scheme
An unbuilt permission next door can turn a 35 per cent daylight loss into a 9 per cent one. Which baseline you use, how much weight it carries, and how to report both without losing credibility.
Checking a Tree Preservation Order against the council map
The council map shows where a TPO applies. Only the order and its schedule show which trees are protected. Here is how to read both, and what to do when they disagree.
Listed building consent or planning permission: which applies
Planning permission controls development. Listed building consent controls works affecting special interest, inside and out. Most schemes on a listed building need both, and the tests are not the same.
Material consideration: what a council can lawfully consider
Material considerations are set by section 70(2) of the 1990 Act and by case law, not by a list. Here is what councils can weigh, what they must ignore, and why volume of objections is not weight.
Finding a site allocation in the local plan document set
Site allocations are often split across strategic policies, an allocations document, an area action plan or a neighbourhood plan. Here is how to find the right policy, trace the evidence behind it and structure a planning statement around it.
Prior approval or a full application for Class MA
Class MA prior approval converts a Class E building to dwellings without assessing design or principle, but bars external alterations and depends on qualifying conditions. Here is how the two routes compare and how to choose.
Registering and tracking a neighbouring application
Councils must keep a public register of planning applications under article 40 of the DMPO 2015. Here is how to find the weekly list, set alerts, read the consultation dates correctly and track amendments and decisions.
Second staircases in tall residential buildings
Approved Document B requires a second staircase in new residential buildings above 18 metres from 30 September 2026. Here is how height is measured, how the transitional arrangements work and what a second core does to a consented scheme.
Part 20 upward extensions: new flats on top of a block
Part 20 of the GPDO 2015 permits additional storeys on a detached block of flats through prior approval rather than a planning application. Here are the qualifying tests, the prior approval matters, and the airspace and building safety issues that decide these schemes.
Greenfield runoff rates and the methods used to derive them
The greenfield runoff rate caps what a developed site may discharge and drives the whole attenuation design. Here is how the estimation methods work, why small sites are a problem, and how to agree the rate with the lead local flood authority.
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