PlanScope Blog – Page 331
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 331
8724 articlesThe flood exception test: evidencing both limbs
Sequential test done, exception test next. The two limbs need different evidence from different people, and most failures come from treating them as one argument.
Tree surveys in winter: what can be assessed
Most of a BS 5837 survey works fine in January. A few judgements do not. Here is what a winter survey can settle and how to programme the rest.
Servicing and deliveries for a small commercial unit
Deliveries, refuse and loading decide more small commercial applications than trip generation does. Here is the evidence a highway officer actually reads.
Minerals Safeguarding Areas and prior extraction
Minerals Safeguarding Areas cover large parts of England and catch ordinary housing sites. Here is what the mineral planning authority will ask for and how to answer it.
Intensification: when more of the same becomes a new use
Doing more of what you already lawfully do is not automatically development. The line is crossed when the character of the use changes, and that is an evidence question.
Class G: converting upper floors over shops to flats
Class G keeps the commercial unit and puts up to two flats above it, under prior approval rather than a full application. What it allows, and where it stops.
Signing off an AI-assisted draft: what you take on
Putting your name to a report you did not write transfers the liability to you. Here is how to scope the review, what to check first, and what to record.
Proving the qualifying use for a Class Q barn conversion
The Class Q qualifying use test decides most barn conversion prior approvals before design is ever discussed. This is what the Order asks you to prove, and the paperwork that proves it.
Satellite dishes and antennas under Class H
Two dishes on a house under 15 metres, within size limits, sited to minimise their appearance, and removed when no longer needed. That is Class H in a sentence.
Conflicts of interest when consultants advise both sides
The professional codes turn on identifying a conflict early and disclosing it. The harder judgement is when informed consent cures the problem and when nothing does.
Defining the search area for a flood sequential test
Most failed sequential tests fail on the search area rather than on the sites. Agree the geography with the authority first, then argue about availability.
Dead, dying and dangerous trees: the five day notice
The 2012 regulations narrowed the old dead, dying or dangerous exemption. Knowing which limb you are relying on, and what notice it requires, is what keeps a felling lawful.
Cycle parking standards and validation checks
Cycle parking is set locally, not nationally, and applications are returned at validation for showing a rack symbol with no dimensions, no access route and no security.
Refused on highway safety: rebuilding the case
A highway safety refusal usually rests on one measurable thing. Find it in the consultation response, measure it properly, and the second application often succeeds.
Aerodrome safeguarding zones and what they restrict
Safeguarding is a consultation regime rather than a prohibition. It catches tall buildings, water features, solar arrays, landfill and cranes, sometimes many kilometres from a runway.
The planning unit: identifying what is being assessed
Choose the wrong planning unit and every subsequent conclusion is wrong with perfect logic. The starting point is the unit of occupation, and it moves when the land is divided.
Flues, chimneys and soil vent pipes under Class G
A wood burner flue is usually permitted development, and the two limits that decide it are the one metre height rule and where the flue sits on a protected building.
Commissioning a peer review of a specialist planning report
A peer review is not a proofread. It tests whether the method was followed, whether the data supports the conclusion, and whether the report would survive cross examination.
Flood Zone 3b: how the functional floodplain is defined
The functional floodplain is the only flood zone drawn by the council rather than the Environment Agency, and its extent decides whether a site can carry housing at all.
Appealing a refusal of consent to fell a protected tree
A refused application to fell a protected tree carries a short appeal window and a low evidential bar for the council. Winning means proving harm the tree is actually causing.
Construction traffic management plans that get approved
A CTMP is discharged by the highway authority, not the planning officer, and it is refused for the same handful of omissions every time.
Coastal Change Management Areas and what they allow
A CCMA is a local plan designation for land expected to be physically changed by the sea. It does not ban development outright, and the permissions granted inside one look different.
Ancillary and incidental uses: when a sideline becomes primary
A cafe inside a garden centre needs no permission until it stops being part of the garden centre. The line is character and degree, and councils test it with floorspace, turnover and trips.
Porches under Class D: the 3 square metre and 3 metre rules
Three numbers decide whether a porch needs planning permission, and the one that catches people is the two metre standoff from the boundary with a highway.
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