PlanScope Blog – Page 321
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 321
8804 articlesWhich reports a children's nursery change of use needs
Nurseries sit in Class E(f), so many changes of use need no permission at all. Where one is needed, drop off, outdoor play noise and highway safety decide it.
Fire Safety Strategy: the BS 9991 report structure
A BS 9991 strategy is a fire engineering document, not a planning fire statement. Here is what sits in each section and what a reviewer should test.
Environmental Outcomes Reports: the proposed EIA replacement
Environmental outcomes reports are enabling powers, not law in force. Scope to the 2017 EIA Regulations, and build an evidence base that reports against outcomes too.
Checking an ecologist's licence before you appoint them
Protected species licences are personal, species-specific and time-limited. Ten minutes of checking protects the one thing that cannot be fixed later.
Piling, vibration and neighbouring structures
The vibration levels that annoy neighbours are far below the levels that damage buildings. Method, hours and monitoring are what planning conditions actually control.
Balconies and overhangs: the light they take from below
A balcony above a window removes sky from the part of the hemisphere that matters most. Here is how to model it, and which design levers recover the loss.
Walkthrough: a telecoms mast prior approval under Part 16
An illustrative walkthrough of a 20 metre monopole through Part 16 prior approval, from the ICNIRP declaration to the 56 day deadline and the conditions imposed.
Section 73 refusals and the limits of varying conditions
Section 73 varies conditions, not the description of development. That single limit explains most refusals, and knowing it before you apply saves a fee and eight weeks.
The report pack for a 150 home planning application
At 150 homes a scheme crosses nearly every English planning threshold at once. Here is the evidence base it needs and the order to commission it in.
TVIA viewpoint schedules: agreeing views and reporting effects
The viewpoint schedule decides most of the argument in a townscape and visual impact assessment. Agree it with the case officer before the photography is booked.
What changes in the report pack at ten dwellings
Nine dwellings is minor, ten is major. What that changes in the document pack, the determination period, the publicity regime and the drainage evidence expected.
Walkthrough: an equestrian change of use with an arena
Grazing is agriculture; keeping horses is not. An illustrative walkthrough of an arena application, from the use class question to the curfew and the commercial conditions.
The Infrastructure Levy powers and what happens to CIL
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act created the framework for an Infrastructure Levy and left the detail to regulations. What that means for appraising a site under two regimes.
Historic Building Recording: what each of the four levels contains
The four recording levels differ in the kind of record produced, not just the effort. What Levels 1 to 4 contain, and how to get a recording condition discharged.
Free go resubmission or appeal: choosing between them
The fee regulations waive the fee on one resubmission within 12 months. When that is the right route, when to appeal instead, and why the appeal deadline does not pause.
Walkthrough: a farm shop and cafe on a working holding
A farm shop application is decided on the lane rather than the principle. An illustrative walkthrough from access survey to the produce condition and year one in practice.
Unilateral undertakings when a section 106 is refused
A unilateral undertaking lets an appellant put an obligation before an inspector without the council signing anything. What it has to contain and when it has to arrive.
Structural condition as an argument for demolition
Condition arguments for demolition usually fail on the same points. What an engineer has to do, how repair schedules are scrutinised, and why marketing evidence matters.
Modelling neighbouring rooms when access is refused
Assumed internal layouts are normal in daylight work. The professional question is how to assume defensibly, record the basis and test whether the assumption changes the answer.
Documents for a five dwelling scheme on a village edge
Five dwellings sits under the major development threshold, which shortens the list but not the survey programme. What a village edge scheme needs and the order to commission it.
Walkthrough: an outbuilding query settled by a certificate
A council enquiry about a garden room, answered with measurements rather than assertions. The Class E limits, the curtilage calculation trap and what a certificate actually protects.
Section 73B: the new route for varying a permission
Section 73 cannot change the description of development. Section 73B was inserted to fill that gap, subject to a substantially different test and to being brought into force.
Means of escape and the loft conversion drawing
Adding a loft room turns a two storey house into a three storey one, and the escape rules change at that point. What that does to the stair, the landing and the rooflights.
Archaeological Field Evaluation: the report structure
An evaluation report exists to say what is under the site, how important it is and what has to happen next. How the sections fit together and where weak reports go quiet.
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