PlanScope Blog – Page 348
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 348
8382 articlesEquestrian planning permission: stables, menage and horses
Section 336 treats grazing as agriculture, but horses kept for riding are a different use of the land. That distinction decides most equestrian applications.
Air Quality Management Area: what it means for you
An AQMA is a formal declaration that an air quality objective is not being met. Inside one, expect an assessment requirement and close scrutiny of your traffic assumptions.
Basement planning policy: what London boroughs require
There is no basement policy in the London Plan. The controls come from borough local plans and basement SPDs, and they shape the excavation before they shape the design.
Outbuilding size and height limits under Class E
Six numbers and one condition decide whether a garden building is permitted development. Here is how to calculate curtilage coverage, which height limit applies to which roof, and the traps in conservation areas.
Sequential and exception tests: what each one must prove
Two separate documents answering two separate questions. Here is how to define the search area, evidence reasonably available sites, and address both limbs of the exception test.
Caravan and residential park home site planning permission
Permission authorises the use, a site licence regulates the layout, and the licence cannot be issued without the permission. Here is how the two consents fit together and why flood risk decides so many rural caravan applications.
Agent of change: who pays to mitigate the noise conflict
Build flats next to a venue and the flats carry the mitigation. Here is where the principle sits in national and London policy, what mitigation it buys, and the three limits operators should know about.
How to object to a neighbour's planning application
An objection counts when it raises a material consideration, ties it to an adopted policy and gives the officer evidence. Here is what is material, what is not, and how to write the letter.
The 45-degree rule and how officers apply it to extensions
The 45-degree line is a screening device in council design guides, not national policy. Knowing how it is drawn tells you which part of the extension has to move.
VSC, NSL and ADF in a Daylight and Sunlight Assessment
VSC answers the blocked-window objection, no sky line answers the dark-back-room objection, and internal illuminance answers whether your own flats will be liveable.
Creating a new vehicular access onto a rural lane
A rural access application turns on whether a driver emerging from the gateway can see far enough along the lane. The surfacing, gates and hedge all follow from that.
Source Protection Zone: groundwater and your site
Source protection zones are modelled on groundwater travel time to a drinking water borehole. They rarely stop a scheme, but they often rewrite the drainage strategy.
SANG checks to make before you buy land
Zone of influence boundaries live in council strategy documents, not national datasets. Three questions answered before exchange will tell you whether a plot is buildable.
Garden room or separate dwelling: the ancillary test
A garden room stops being permitted development once someone can live in it independently. Here is the section 55 planning unit test, the Class E limits, and how councils tie an annexe to the main house.
Writing the archaeological desk-based assessment baseline
The baseline decides whether a desk-based assessment survives review by the county archaeologist. Here are the sources, the search radius, how to read disturbance, and how to turn data into a testable statement of potential.
Holiday let planning permission and occupancy conditions
Holiday letting may or may not need permission, depending on intensity and location. Here is the section 55 test, the London 90-night exception, the evidence councils look for and the conditions to expect.
Annual probable sunlight hours: the BRE 209 sunlight tests
APSH, the winter component and the two-hour equinox test on gardens decide most sunlight arguments. Here is what each one measures and how to read a sunlight table without being misled.
Planning committee or delegated decision: how yours is decided
Most applications are decided by officers under delegated powers. Here is where the scheme of delegation lives, what pushes a case to committee, and how call-in and public speaking actually work.
Side extensions on terraced and end-terrace houses
A mid-terrace house has no side elevation to build beyond. An end-terrace does, and then three Class A exclusions decide whether anything is permitted development.
Sun-on-ground and transient overshadowing methods compared
One method has a threshold, the other has a story. Choosing between sun-on-ground testing and a transient shadow sequence depends on the objection you are answering.
Basement extension planning permission under a house
Digging out a basement under an existing house is an engineering operation, and Class A rarely covers it. Here is what councils ask for and in what order.
SANG: suitable alternative natural greenspace
A SANG gives new residents somewhere to walk instead of a protected heath or estuary. If your site sits in a zone of influence, a contribution or a bespoke SANG is not optional.
Nutrient neutrality catchments: what your council will ask for
In affected catchments a council cannot grant permission for new overnight accommodation until a nutrient budget shows neutrality. Here is what that means for a small site.
Green Belt councils: how to plan an extension that will pass
In the Green Belt an extension is acceptable in principle only if it is not a disproportionate addition to the original building. This explains how councils measure that, what happens to outbuildings, and what a Planning Statement must show.
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