PlanScope Blog – Page 349
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 349
8377 articlesParking standards SPDs: how to evidence parking provision
Parking provision is judged against the adopted local plan policy and the parking standards SPD sitting under it. Here is how to find the right document, apply the correct zone, and build the survey evidence that answers a highway objection.
TRICS: where trip rates in transport reports come from
Almost every Transport Assessment in England takes its trip rates from TRICS. This explains what the database holds, how a practitioner picks comparable sites, and which questions expose a weak trip rate table.
Tree categorisation A to U in a BS 5837 survey
BS 5837:2012 sorts every tree on and near your site into U, A, B or C based on quality and how long it will keep contributing. That grade decides which trees your layout has to work around and which the council will let you lose.
How to read a council validation checklist before you apply
Validation is an administrative test, not a planning judgement. Here is how to read a local validation checklist, work out which items are lawfully required, and stop an application being held at registration.
Child yield and playable space in a Play Space Assessment
Child yield drives the whole playable space requirement on a residential scheme. Here is how the calculation works, how the 10 m2 per child standard splits across age bands, and what a defensible shortfall case looks like.
HMO Article 4 directions: how to check if your street is covered
Class L of the GPDO lets a C3 dwellinghouse become a small HMO without planning permission, unless an Article 4 direction has removed it. Here is how to find the direction, read its boundary and work out what you must apply for.
Setting of a heritage asset: what it includes
Setting is the surroundings in which a heritage asset is experienced, not a mapped buffer. Here is what it covers, how the Historic England staged approach works, and what a planning officer expects to see written down.
Householder Article 4 directions in conservation areas explained
An Article 4 direction takes away permitted development rights in a defined area, so work that would be permitted elsewhere needs a planning application. Here is how to read one, what it usually covers, and why the application is often fee-free.
Adding a balcony to a house or flat: what councils ask
A usable balcony almost always needs planning permission, even on the rear of a house. Here is how councils judge overlooking, what changes for flats and listed buildings, and what to put in the application pack.
Garage conversion: when you need planning permission
Most integral garage conversions are permitted development, but a parking condition on the original permission can stop yours. Here is how to check, and how a section 73 application removes the obstacle.
Pre-application advice: what council fee bands buy you
Pre-application advice is a discretionary service councils charge for under their own fee schedules. Here is how the bands are usually structured, what the written response will and will not commit to, and how to brief an enquiry so the answer is worth having.
Dropped kerb applications: planning and highways together
A vehicle crossover needs highway authority consent under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980. Planning permission is a separate question, and for most unclassified residential streets the answer is no. Here is how the two routes fit together.
Intensification: when doing more becomes development
Doing more of the same thing can need planning permission. This explains when intensification of use amounts to a material change of use under section 55, the character test the courts apply, and the evidence councils expect.
Converting a house into flats: the planning permission route
Splitting one dwelling into two or more self-contained flats is a material change of use under section 55, so there is no permitted development shortcut. Here is what councils measure, and what evidence wins validation.
Getting planning permission for an annexe for a relative
Most annexes for a relative need planning permission, and the decision turns on whether the council sees ancillary accommodation or a second dwelling. Here is how that judgement is made and how to shape your application around it.
Planning unit: the piece of land the council assesses
The planning unit is the parcel the council measures change of use against. Get it wrong and your material change of use argument collapses before it starts.
Replacement dwelling planning permission: policy tests
A replacement house is a new dwelling in planning terms, which changes the application type, the evidence base and the biodiversity net gain position. Here are the tests councils apply and the documents that answer them.
Planning permission for a garden office or outbuilding
Most garden offices are built under permitted development, but Class E has hard limits on height, coverage and use. Here is what decides whether you need planning permission, and what to do if you do.
Flood Zone 3b and the functional floodplain
Flood Zone 3b is the functional floodplain: land where water has to flow or be stored in a flood. Only water-compatible development and essential infrastructure belong there, and the zone is defined by your council's strategic flood risk assessment, not the national flood map.
Habitat units: the currency of biodiversity net gain
Habitat units are the unit of account in the Defra statutory biodiversity metric. Here is how the number is built, why area, hedgerow and watercourse units are counted separately, and what a metric output can and cannot tell you before you buy land.
Abandonment of use: when a lawful use dies
A lawful use can be lost through abandonment, which means resuming it needs fresh planning permission. Here is what the four factors cover and how to prove a last lawful use.
Planning permission for a two-storey side extension
Class A permitted development stops at a single storey to the side, so a two-storey side extension needs a householder planning application. Here is what officers look for and what the council will validate.
How to win permission for an infill plot in a village
A single new dwelling in a village gap is a minor application, but it lives or dies on two tests: whether the plot sits inside the settlement boundary and whether the spacing respects the street. Here is how to build the case and the evidence pack.
Principal elevation: how to identify it correctly
The principal elevation is the wall that fronts the main highway serving the house and carries its main architectural features. Here is how the test works, how corner plots and angled frontages change the answer, and which permitted development rights turn on it.
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