PlanScope Blog – Page 345
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 345
8402 articlesAnnexe for a relative: planning conditions and council tax
An annexe stands or falls on whether it stays ancillary to the main house. The planning condition, the layout and the council tax band all turn on the same question.
Statutory consultee: who the council must ask
A statutory consultee is a body the council is required by law to ask. Knowing which ones your site triggers tells you what evidence to submit on day one.
Section 106 or CIL: which applies to your scheme
The levy is a fixed charge on floorspace. A section 106 agreement is negotiated site-specific mitigation. Most schemes of any size end up doing both.
Climate change allowances section of an FRA
The climate change section is where a flood risk assessment sets the finished floor level. Choose the wrong allowance and the whole design case has to be redone.
Bats in your loft: what a conversion legally requires
Bat roosts are protected whether or not bats are present, and permitted development rights change nothing. Here is the sequence a loft conversion has to follow.
Neighbourhood plan: how much weight it carries
A made neighbourhood plan is part of the development plan, with the same statutory starting point as the local plan. Before it is made, its weight depends on the stage it has reached.
Council CIL charging schedules: reading zones and indexation
The rate printed in a charging schedule is almost never the rate you pay. Indexation, zone boundaries and floorspace deductions all sit between the two.
Writing the TPO consent statement for pruning works
Tree officers refuse vague applications, not pruning. A short statement that specifies the works properly and gives an arboricultural reason usually gets consent.
Extending near a protected tree without losing consent
A protected tree does not stop an extension, but it does decide where the walls go. Here is the order to work through before the drawings are finished.
Housing Delivery Test: what a failure triggers
The Housing Delivery Test compares homes delivered against homes required over three years. Falling below the thresholds changes how a council has to decide applications.
CIL Form 1 to Form 6: which notice to send and when
Most levy disputes start with a missed form rather than a disputed rate. Here is the running order from the application to the day before you start on site.
Root protection area calculations in an AIA
The root protection area is the number every tree officer checks first. Here is how BS 5837:2012 asks you to calculate it, reshape it and defend an encroachment.
Extending a house in Flood Zone 3: what to submit
An extension in Flood Zone 3 needs a flood risk assessment even when the works are modest. Here is what the council and the Environment Agency actually look for.
Development plan: what documents make it up
Councils decide applications in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Knowing which documents are actually in it is the first move in any planning argument.
Site location plans councils accept: scale, red line and north point
The location plan is the one drawing every English council checks first. Get the scale, the red line and the north point right and validation stops being a lottery.
Great crested newt sections: eDNA, HSI and licensing
Newt survey work runs to a fixed calendar. Here is how the pond assessment, the habitat suitability index, eDNA sampling and district level licensing fit together.
Converting a loft in a flat or maisonette
Part 1 of the GPDO excludes flats, so every external alteration needs permission. Here is the application route, the lease problem and the fire escape issue.
Section 38(6): why the local plan comes first
The determination must be made in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Here is how that sentence shapes every planning statement.
Local list validation requirements and the two year rule
A local validation requirement binds you only if it was published within the last two years and is reasonable for the scale of development. Here is how to check and how to argue it.
Bat emergence survey results: what reviewers check
A reviewer reads the effort table before the conclusion. Here is what a defensible bat emergence survey results section contains and the red flags that stop a sign-off.
Basement and cellar conversions under a house
An internal cellar conversion and a new excavation are different projects in planning terms. Here is where the line falls, and what a basement impact assessment has to cover.
Immunity from enforcement: the four and ten year rules
Enforcement immunity arises by lapse of time under section 171B. Here is the old four and ten year split, the single ten year rule in England, and the evidence needed to prove it.
Extension of time agreements and the eight week clock
Agreeing an extension of time usually beats forcing a decision at week eight. Here is how the statutory periods work, what the fee refund covers and when to appeal instead.
Trading down and off-site sections of a BNG plan
Once on-site gain runs out, the trading rules decide what can replace what. Here is how to write the off-site, credits and management sections of a biodiversity gain plan.
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