PlanScope Blog – Page 334
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 334
8699 articlesArticle 4 directions: how they are made and challenged
There is no appeal against an Article 4 direction. Your influence sits in the consultation window, in the evidence base, and in the twelve month compensation rule.
Daylight consultants: what competence looks like
Neighbour testing and climate-based internal daylight modelling are two disciplines, not one. What competence looks like, and the assumptions that decide the result.
Costs awards at appeal and how unreasonable behaviour is judged
Costs awards do not follow the result. What counts as substantive and procedural unreasonable behaviour, when to apply, and whether the sum is worth chasing.
Getting permission for a funeral directors and chapel of rest
The office looks like Class E. The mortuary and chapel of rest may not. How the use class boundary, drainage consent and cortege access decide the application.
Openness of the Green Belt and how it is assessed
Screening a building behind planting deals with visual impact and does nothing for openness. How inspectors assess spatial and visual openness, and what to measure.
Class E(e) and E(f): clinics, creches and day nurseries
Medical services sit in Class E(e) and creches and day nurseries in E(f). The use change is often free, but conditions, drop-off and play space decide whether it works.
Prior approval: what the council can actually refuse on
A prior approval is not a soft planning application. The council can only consider the matters its class lists, and everything else is outside its remit.
Air quality assessment authors and IAQM expectations
Planning law names no qualification for an air quality author, so councils judge the method instead. What to ask about modelling, verification and dust assessment.
Appeal costs: fees, procedures and what you actually spend
Planning appeals are free to lodge, so the real bill is your own time, any professional help and the months of delay. What each procedure costs, and when to resubmit instead.
Getting permission for a used car sales pitch
Displaying vehicles for sale sits outside every use class, so there is no permitted development route. Here is what decides a car sales pitch application.
Grampian conditions: what they are and their limits
Negatively worded conditions let a council grant permission where the fix sits on someone else's land. The limit is deliverability, and the drafting has to be exact.
Building a compliance file after permission is granted
Every document a buyer's solicitor will want exists at some point during the build. The problem is that nobody keeps them together, and reconstructing the file later is expensive.
Getting permission for a vehicle repair workshop
A garage is general industry in planning terms, which puts it outside Class E and outside most permitted changes. Noise and drainage are what the council will actually argue about.
Part 16 telecoms masts and the prior approval procedure
A mast notification is not a planning application. The council is deciding two questions, and objections about health or need cannot be taken into account.
Lighting assessment competence and the ILP guidance notes
Lighting design is not a protected title, so the quality of an obtrusive light assessment varies widely. The environmental zone and the photometric data are where reviewers should start.
The cost of delay when a survey season is missed
Seasonal survey windows do not move for a development programme. The cost of missing one is the carrying cost of the site until it reopens, which dwarfs the fee.
Publicity for major development: notices and the rules
Publicity is the council's duty, not the applicant's, but a defective site notice is the applicant's problem. What Article 15 requires and how to check it was done.
Getting permission for a soft play centre
A soft play centre generates its busiest hour on a Saturday morning, which is exactly when the highway officer is not looking. Getting the survey periods right matters more than the use class.
Class E(d) gyms and the F2 community boundary
A gym is Class E(d) and a swimming pool is Class F2, even though both are indoor sport. Which side of the line a facility falls on decides whether a change of use is needed at all.
Air source heat pumps under Part 14 and the noise condition
Class G of Part 14 makes most domestic air source heat pumps permitted development, but only where the installation meets the MCS planning standard, including its noise limit.
Who can prepare a heritage statement and when more is needed
A heritage statement has to describe significance and assess the effect of the proposal on it. For modest works an informed owner can do that. For others the council will expect a specialist.
Budgeting an ecology package including biodiversity net gain
The ecology line in a small development budget is rarely one survey. It is a sequence, and the expensive part is usually the thirty year obligation nobody priced.
Twin-tracking: when a duplicate application helps
Submitting the same scheme twice buys you an appeal route without giving up the negotiation. It also means two fees, two consultations and a power for the council to decline to determine.
Getting permission for a gym in a warehouse unit
Moving a gym into an industrial unit is a change of use from B8 to Class E(d). Structure borne noise from free weights is the technical issue that most applications get wrong.
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