PlanScope Blog – Page 35
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 35
9583 articlesConverting a historic farmstead: the cartshed problem
In a traditional farmstead the barn usually converts well and the cartshed does not. The open elevation is the heritage interest, and glazing it is the harm.
Indexation of financial contributions in planning obligations
An indexation clause can add a material sum between signing a section 106 agreement and paying the contribution. The base date and the index chosen matter more than the headline figure.
Safe access depth and velocity thresholds in flood design
Safe access and dry access are different tests. The first is a hazard rating derived from depth, velocity and a debris factor; the second means the route never floods at all.
Part 4 Class D: temporary flexible use of commercial premises
Class D of Part 4 gives a one-off temporary flexible use right for qualifying commercial premises. It needs notification, it does not change the lawful use, and it cannot be used twice on the same site.
Section 215 notices for untidy land
Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets a council require steps to remedy land whose condition harms local amenity, with no breach of planning control needed.
Opening a butcher with an on-site cutting room
Retail butchery sits in Class E, but a cutting room adds night-time refrigeration noise, animal by-product storage and drainage questions that an ordinary shop application never has to answer.
Welsh language impact and when an assessment is needed
Wales only. The Welsh language is a statutory material consideration in planning decisions, and larger housing schemes in Welsh-speaking areas are routinely asked for a linguistic impact assessment.
Residential EIA screening at 150 homes or five hectares
Residential schemes become Schedule 2 development above 150 dwellings or five hectares, and the thresholds disappear entirely in a sensitive area. Here is how to handle screening.
Garden rooms used for business: where the line falls
The planning risk in a garden office is rarely the building. It is the use. Here is how councils judge whether business activity in a garden room has become a material change of use.
Water neutrality and what it does to scheme size
In an affected supply zone, demand offsetting rather than a unit threshold decides how many homes a site can support. Where the calculation bites and what it costs.
Loft conversions in a terrace: party walls and escape
The planning limits are the easy part. Party wall notices on two sides and the protected stairway requirement are what shape a mid-terrace loft conversion.
M4(2) and M4(3) optional requirements in policy
Optional accessibility requirements bite only through a planning condition. The three Part M categories, the evidence a policy needs and the design consequences.
Noise monitoring conditions and who pays for them
A noise monitoring condition needs a metric, position, period, standard, correction and limit. What is lawful, who pays, and how to negotiate one that works.
Coach, taxi and drop-off at a visitor attraction
Daily trip totals tell a highway officer nothing about an attraction. How to design coach, taxi and accessible drop-off around the arrival and departure peaks.
Rebuilding a listed boundary wall after collapse
Make safe, record, then apply. How section 1(5) brings a garden wall into the listing, what the urgent works defence allows and what the specification must say.
Cascade clauses when no provider takes the units
Where no registered provider bids, a cascade clause steps the obligation down through tenures to a payment. The marketing evidence authorities actually accept.
Matching the climate change allowance to lifetime
Residential development is assessed over at least 100 years, which fixes the epoch. How to choose the allowance category, separate river flow from rainfall and record the lookup.
Part 2 Class B: forming a new access without permission
Class B of Part 2 is a supporting right, not a free-standing one. The classified road exclusion, the connection test and the separate highway licence explained.
Nutrient neutrality: occupancy and bedroom mix
In an affected catchment the mitigation requirement follows occupancy by bedroom number. Where the budget inputs come from and which design changes reduce them.
Serving notice on a dissolved or insolvent company
Ownership notice on insolvent or dissolved company land: the Companies House checks, service on administrators, bona vacantia and the unknown owner publicity route.
Replacing windows in a flat or maisonette
Flats and maisonettes have no householder permitted development rights. Whether window replacement needs permission turns on the section 55 test, and the lease matters too.
TPO exemptions for dead or dangerous trees
The 2012 Regulations dropped dying from the exemptions. What dead and immediate risk of serious harm actually mean, the notice periods and the replacement duty.
National development management policies: status now
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 created national development management policies but none have been designated. How to cite policy now and structure for the change.
Arguing against demolition on carbon grounds
Embodied carbon is a material consideration in many authorities, but only a quantified option appraisal shifts a decision. How to build and test the comparison.
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