Articles – page 332

8717 articles
Professionals and Qualifications7 min read

Who can prepare an LVIA and what CMLI actually means

There is no statutory licence to write a landscape and visual impact assessment. Competence is judged on GLVIA3 method, membership grade and the quality of the visual evidence.

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Costs, Fees and Budgeting7 min read

Budgeting a contaminated land investigation

Contamination costs arrive in stages, and each stage sets the price of the next. Here is how the phased sequence to BS 10175 actually spends money on a housing site.

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Permitted Development6 min read

Class C rooflights and the 150 mm projection rule

The 150 mm limit is measured perpendicular to the roof slope, not vertically. What Class C covers, the height rule, the obscure glazing condition and the escape window conflict.

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Professionals and Qualifications6 min read

Who should prepare a daylight and sunlight assessment

Anyone can write a daylight report. What separates a defensible assessment from a weak one is the model, the baseline and whether the author will stand behind it at inquiry.

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Costs, Fees and Budgeting6 min read

The cost of an unauthorised development put right

The application fee is the smallest line. Measured surveys, remedial works, lost rent and building control regularisation, plus the section 70C rule that closes off the easy route.

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Trees and Arboriculture6 min read

No dig construction over root protection areas

Build up, do not dig down. What a no dig section contains, the loading and level constraints that defeat it, and the edge and service details that undo it on site.

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Transport, Highways and Parking6 min read

Section 38 adoption of estate roads and commuted sums

Adoption is discretionary and the specification is the authority's. Where technical approval stalls, what a bond costs, and which design decisions carry a maintenance price.

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Constraints and Designations6 min read

Registered parks and gardens: what the designation means

There is no registered park consent. What registration changes is the evidence, the consultees and the harm test, and where a new building can sensibly sit within a designed landscape.

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Use Classes and Change of Use6 min read

Large HMOs of seven or more: sui generis applications

Above six occupiers there is no permitted change and no prior approval, only a full application. The evidence pack, the amenity standards inside, and the parking and refuse arithmetic outside.

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Permitted Development6 min read

Class AA: adding storeys to a house under prior approval

Check the construction date, the designation and the height arithmetic before drawing anything. What Class AA allows, the houses it rules out, and the amenity grounds that cause refusals.

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Professionals and Qualifications6 min read

Protected species licence classes and what each permits

A survey licence permits looking, a mitigation licence permits doing. Individual, class and organisational licences, the three statutory tests, and the six checks a reviewer should run.

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Costs, Fees and Budgeting6 min read

Fees where an application covers more than one category

A fee a pound short makes the application invalid. How to itemise a mixed scheme against the fee categories, apply the general provisions, and get the number confirmed before submission.

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Trees and Arboriculture7 min read

Applying for consent to work on a protected tree

Work to a tree under a Tree Preservation Order needs written consent, and the application costs nothing. The exemptions, the evidence that persuades a tree officer, and the conservation area notice.

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Transport, Highways and Parking6 min read

Dropped kerb consent and the section 184 application

Two consents, two teams. When Class B of Part 2 covers the access, when a classified road makes it an application, and what the highway authority measures before it says yes.

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Constraints and Designations6 min read

Archaeological Priority Areas and what triggers evaluation

A mapped priority area means the council wants to know what is under the ground before it decides. The tiers, the evaluation sequence, and how foundation design changes the answer.

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Use Classes and Change of Use6 min read

Class C4 and the C3 to C4 change: small HMOs

Three to six sharers puts a house in Class C4. Whether you need permission turns on one Article 4 check, and the application after it turns on concentration, amenity and parking evidence.

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Permitted Development6 min read

Permitted development removed by a planning condition

A condition on your permission can remove householder permitted development rights for good. How article 3(4) works, when a council can justify it, and the section 73 route out.

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Professionals and Qualifications6 min read

How to check a planning consultant's registration and record

Anyone can call themselves a planning consultant. How to check RTPI, RICS and Architects Registration Board entries, read their record on your council's register, and set the scope in writing.

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Costs, Fees and Budgeting7 min read

Budgeting an acoustic evidence base for a noisy site

The baseline survey is the largest line, and plant chosen after it is booked is what makes you pay twice. Which method applies, what conditions cost later, and where a draft helps.

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Trees and Arboriculture7 min read

Reading BS 5837 tree categories A, B, C and U

Category A trees shape the layout, category U trees come out regardless. How the BS 5837 cascade works, where the root protection area radius comes from, and the survey faults tree officers spot first.

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Transport, Highways and Parking6 min read

Choosing and defending TRICS trip rates

Highway officers read the appendix first. Land use categories, the filters that move the rate, rank order graphs, existing use credit and the scoping note that prevents the argument.

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Constraints and Designations6 min read

Coal mining risk areas and the referral requirement

Coalfield councils will not validate an application in a Development High Risk Area without a Coal Mining Risk Assessment. The free check, the report contents, mine entry zones and Coal Authority permits.

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Use Classes and Change of Use7 min read

What single household means in Class C3

Three friends sharing are not a single household, whatever the tenancy says. How section 258 defines the term, where two sharers sit, and where C3(b) ends and Class C2 begins.

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Permitted Development7 min read

Permitted development on a flat, maisonette or converted house

A building containing flats loses Part 1 permitted development rights entirely. The horizontal division test, the Classes that still apply to blocks of flats, and how to get certainty.

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