PlanScope Blog – Page 338
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 338
8668 articlesExtending next to a neighbour's conservatory
A conservatory gets less protection than a lounge, but not none. The tests councils apply, why a two-storey extension matters more than the plan suggests, and how to fix it.
Section 73 or section 96A: fees and when each applies
Section 96A amends a permission. Section 73 creates a new one. The fee difference is small; the consequences for the levy, consultation and appeal rights are not.
Refused on design: using the National Design Guide at appeal
Design refusals read as opinion. The answer is to structure the appeal around the ten characteristics of the National Design Guide and evidence each one.
Your planning decision notice: what actually binds you
Only two parts of a decision notice bind you: the conditions and the approved plans list. Here is how to read the rest, and what to do in the first hour.
Student accommodation and its planning contributions
Student schemes do not produce Class C3 dwellings, so affordable policy applies indirectly if at all. What the use class decides, and what the section 106 usually carries.
Expert witness duties at a planning inquiry
The duty runs to the inquiry, not the client. What that means for your proof of evidence, what you concede under cross-examination, and where costs awards come from.
Daylight in listed building conversions with fixed windows
You cannot move the windows, so the work moves to evidence and layout. Which standard applies, how to model deep reveals and secondary glazing, and how to justify a shortfall.
Fees for discharging planning conditions, explained
One fee covers any number of conditions on the same permission, so how you group them decides the bill. Where splitting requests is worth paying twice for.
Refused on highway safety: the evidence that changes minds
A highway refusal is one of the few you can answer with measurements. Speed surveys, sightline drawings, collision records and parking stress data do more than a redesign.
How to read a planning officer report before committee
The officer's report is the council's own case for the decision. Here is how to read one section by section, and which errors are worth raising before members vote.
Screening and scoping opinions: the EIA procedure
A screening opinion tells you whether an environmental statement is needed. Requesting it early, with the right content, is what keeps a major scheme's programme intact.
Build to rent: affordable provision and the covenant period
Build to rent affordable homes stay with the operator, so the obligation has to work for fifteen years. Here is what the covenant, the discount and the clawback need to say.
What a professional certifies when signing off a draft report
A signature says the work is within your competence and the conclusions follow from the evidence. Defining the scope of review is what makes that statement safe to make.
Presenting daylight results so an officer can use them
A case officer needs the criteria, a table by window and a conclusion they can quote. Most reports supply the numbers and leave them to build the rest.
What councils charge for pre-application advice
Pre-application advice is a discretionary service priced locally under section 93. Here is what the tiers cover, what the fee does not buy, and when it earns its cost.
Refused as overbearing: rebuilding a householder case
An overbearing refusal is about outlook and enclosure rather than light. The fix is usually geometry at the boundary, plus a neighbour conversation before you resubmit.
Planning performance agreements on a major scheme
A performance agreement buys named officers, dated stages and an escalation route. It cannot buy a decision, and a scheme that conflicts with policy gains nothing from one.
Overage and clawback clauses in a planning agreement
Overage gives the council a share of value that appears after permission. The trigger definition is the whole clause, and the rest is arithmetic worth pinning down.
Peer review of a specialist report: when it earns its cost
Peer review pays where a report will be attacked, where the method is unusual, or where you inherited the work. Elsewhere it is comfort, which is a decision to make consciously.
Privacy distances between facing windows in dense schemes
Separation standards are local guidance, not national policy. On a dense site the argument is about harm to living conditions rather than about the dimension.
Section 106 contributions and CIL: what each can fund
The levy is a fixed charge spent on council priorities. A section 106 obligation is negotiated and tied to your site. Affordable housing can only sit in the second.
Appeal site visits: accompanied, unaccompanied and preparation
An accompanied site visit is not a hearing. Here is what you can point out, what you cannot say, and the access failures that waste the inspector's visit.
Twin tracking and duplicate applications: is it worth it
Running two applications at once buys optionality and costs two full fees. Here is when it earns its keep and when an extension of time does the same job.
Health contributions and the primary care case
Health contribution requests convert your unit mix into patients and then into premises cost. Each step is checkable, and the link to a named project is where most fail.
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