PlanScope Blog – Page 361
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 361
8682 articlesSANG 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.
ProPG and BS 8233 sections of a residential noise assessment
ProPG sets the method and BS 8233 supplies the numbers for new homes near roads, railways and flight paths. This walks through each section of a competent report and the checks an environmental health officer runs first.
Rear extension depth: 3m, 4m, 6m and 8m limits explained
Single-storey rear extensions may project 3 m or 4 m from the original rear wall without permission, or 6 m or 8 m under the larger home extension scheme. This explains the height, boundary and location conditions attached to each figure.
Front extension or porch: rules and refusal reasons
A porch is permitted development within three limits from Class D of the General Permitted Development Order. Anything bigger on the front of a house needs a householder application, and the building line usually decides it.
Community Infrastructure Levy: how liability arises
CIL liability arises automatically when permission first permits development in a charging area. This explains the floorspace rules, the order the forms must be filed in, the self-build and extension exemptions, and what a missed commencement notice costs.
Householder design guide SPDs: what officers check line by line
A householder design guide SPD is the checklist a case officer runs against your extension drawings. This is what each check means, how to draw it, and how to turn the guide into a design justification the officer can accept.
Parking 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.
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