PlanScope Blog – Page 336
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 336
8682 articlesIndependent viability review fees and who pays them
Argue viability and the council appoints its own reviewer at your expense. How the fee is agreed, which inputs get tested hardest, and why the price paid for the land is not a benchmark.
Statements of common ground at hearings and inquiries
A statement of common ground tells the inspector what the parties agree so the event can deal with what they do not. What goes in it, who signs it, and how to draft it.
The description of development: why the wording binds you
Conditions can be varied and plans amended. The description of development cannot, which is why a unit count in the wrong place fixes a scheme for its whole life.
Planning permission for a delivery only kitchen
A kitchen cooking only for delivery sits awkwardly in the Use Classes Order. How to settle the classification, and the extraction, rider and noise evidence councils expect.
The larger home extension prior approval and neighbour notice
Up to eight metres for a detached house, six for a semi or terrace. What the notice must contain, who gets consulted, and why silence from neighbours settles it.
What a chartered town planner does that an agent may not
Anyone can call themselves a planning consultant. What chartered membership requires, where an unregulated agent is entirely adequate, and how to size the appointment to the risk.
Planning performance agreement fees: what to negotiate
A planning performance agreement buys officer time and a programme, never an outcome. How the charge is built, what sits outside it, and the clauses worth negotiating.
Appealing a refused prior approval
A prior approval refusal is only lawful on the matters the class prescribes. How to check the decision notice against that list, and whether to appeal or apply again.
When a committee defers an application, and what follows
A deferral is not a refusal. Which of the four kinds you have determines whether the application is still live, and whether the determination clock is about to run out.
Planning permission for an agricultural worker's dwelling
A rural worker dwelling turns on whether the need is essential. The functional test, the three years of accounts, the temporary route and the occupancy condition that follows.
Article 2(3) land: what it removes from your allowances
Article 2(3) land covers conservation areas, National Parks, National Landscapes, the Broads and World Heritage Sites. Here is exactly which householder rights it removes.
Transport planner competence for a transport assessment
No qualification is reserved for transport assessment work, so highway authorities judge competence by method. What to ask an author, and the patterns that get an assessment rejected.
Costs awards at appeal and how they are claimed
An award of costs needs unreasonable behaviour, wasted expense and a claim made in time. The categories that succeed, the deadline that kills good claims, and the record to build.
Judicial review of a planning decision: grounds and timing
The High Court reviews whether a council acted lawfully, not whether it decided well. The available grounds, the six week deadline, the costs risk and what usually works better.
Scoping opinions: fixing the environmental statement early
Under regulation 15 an authority has five weeks to adopt a scoping opinion, and the environmental statement must then follow it. How to write a request that fixes a proportionate scope.
Planning permission for upward extension to add flats
Rooftop flats can go through Part 20 prior approval or a full application. Which one works depends on the building's age, location and structure, and on whether it crosses 18 metres.
Class E outbuildings and the incidental use test
A garden office usually falls within Class E permitted development. A garden bedroom usually does not. The incidental use test, the height limits and the 50 per cent curtilage rule explained.
Who can sign off a contaminated land report
There is no licence to write a contaminated land report, so competence is judged on qualifications and experience matched to the site. What councils check and how to test a draft.
What a written representations appeal actually costs
The Planning Inspectorate charges nothing to lodge an appeal. The cost sits in the statement, the specialist evidence you had to submit before refusal, and the months it takes.
Third parties at appeal: what objectors can still do
Objections made to the council are passed to the Planning Inspectorate with the appeal file. What third parties can add, how to speak at a hearing or inquiry, and the householder appeal exception.
EIA screening opinions: the request and the three weeks
A local planning authority has three weeks to adopt an EIA screening opinion. What the request must contain, which Schedule 2 thresholds matter, and how a positive opinion reshapes the programme.
Planning permission for a new house in a back garden
A house in a back garden is a full application, not a householder one. Access, amenity, character and boundary trees decide it, and each needs a drawing rather than an assertion.
Resubmit or appeal: choosing after a refusal
The answer usually turns on one question: can the reasons for refusal be designed out. Everything else is programme, cost and appetite for risk.
Class B roof extensions: the 40 and 50 cubic metre limits
The volume allowance is cumulative, measured against the original roof, and a hip-to-gable can spend most of it before the dormer is drawn. Do the arithmetic first.
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