PlanScope Blog – Page 37
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 37
9579 articlesStudent accommodation and affordable housing contributions
Purpose built student accommodation is sui generis, so affordable housing policy reaches it through a bed to dwelling equivalence or through London Plan Policy H15. Here is how the contribution is calculated and contested.
Storey height definitions and how thresholds are measured
Height and storey count decide which regime a building enters, and different rules measure differently. Here are the conventions, the exclusions, the sloping site problem and what to put on the drawings.
Balconies and self-shading in a daylight model
A deep inset balcony can take more daylight from a window than any neighbouring building. Here is how self-shading works, how to model and report it honestly, and which design changes actually recover the loss.
Permeable paving in a SuDS train, and its maintenance
Permeable paving attenuates water in the open-graded sub-base beneath it. Here are the three configurations, how storage volume is calculated, why systems clog, and what a lead local flood authority expects to see named.
Statutory undertaker permitted development: Parts 13 and 15
Water, sewerage and electricity undertakers hold wide permitted development rights under Parts 13 and 15 of the GPDO 2015. A developer building the same infrastructure does not. Here is how that shapes a utilities programme.
Fire statement thresholds: floorspace, height and storeys
The statutory fire statement trigger is height and storey count, not square metres. London Plan Policy D12 and screening checklists are where the 1,000 square metre figure comes from, and they ask for different things.
Who determines a planning application inside a National Park
Inside an English National Park the Park authority decides planning applications, including minerals and waste. Highways, building control and environmental health stay elsewhere. Here is the split, and how it changes what you submit.
Suitable alternative natural greenspace: when a SANG is needed
Suitable alternative natural greenspace draws new residents away from protected heathland. Here is when a SANG contribution is required, what the greenspace must offer, and how the habitats regulations assessment fits around it.
Transport assessment or statement as unit numbers rise
Thresholds for a transport statement and a transport assessment are set locally, not nationally. Scale also brings new consultees, so settle the scope with the highway authority before commissioning anything.
Listed building consent: timescales and consultation duties
Listed building consent carries no fee, an eight week period and a set of notification duties that depend on the grade. Those duties, not the drawings, usually decide the timetable.
Schemes of delegation and whether you get a committee
Whether an officer or a committee decides your application is set by the council's own scheme of delegation, not by statute. Here is what pulls a case to committee and how to find the rules.
Local finance considerations under section 70(2)
Local finance considerations are a statutory category covering government grants and Community Infrastructure Levy receipts. The duty is to have regard to them where material, which is narrower than it sounds.
Drafted transport statements and the trip rate question
An AI-assisted draft can assemble the policy framework and the site description for a transport statement. It cannot extract trip rates from a licensed database or make the site selection judgements that justify them.
The ecclesiastical exemption and faculty jurisdiction
The ecclesiastical exemption replaces listed building consent with an internal system for a short list of denominations. It never replaces planning permission, and it stops when the building stops being used for worship.
Confidential viability appraisals and the publication question
National guidance expects a viability assessment to be prepared on the basis that it will be published, with an executive summary even in the rare case where it is not. Draft accordingly.
Structural evidence for facade retention schemes
A retained facade is a freestanding masonry wall carrying wind load with its restraints removed. The application has to show the propping is deliverable and the fabric can take it.
Tree shading and the balance with tree retention
A protected tree that darkens a kitchen is a planning problem with a narrow set of answers. Crown reduction usually wins over felling, and evergreen hedges are governed by a different statute altogether.
Long term storage against attenuation in drainage design
Attenuation storage and long term storage answer different questions in the non-statutory SuDS standards. Mixing them up is the most common reason a drainage strategy comes back from the lead local flood authority.
Part 12: what local authorities can build without permission
Councils rely on Part 12 for small buildings and street furniture on land they own or maintain, and on the highway exclusion in section 55 for road works. Both have limits worth knowing.
When nine houses and an annexe becomes ten dwellings
An annexe that functions independently can be the tenth dwelling, which turns a minor application into a major one. The test is the planning unit, not the council tax band.
Discharging a condition after the deadline has passed
Starting work before the required details are approved can mean the permission was never implemented. What late approval can and cannot repair, and what to send with the request.
Section 278 agreements and what they commit you to
Section 278 of the Highways Act 1980 is how works to the existing public highway get delivered at a developer's cost. The fees and the programme usually bite harder than the construction.
Reworking an England draft for a Welsh application
Swapping the policy names is the smallest part of converting an England drafted statement for Wales. Different permitted development order, different use classes, no mandatory biodiversity net gain and a SuDS approval body.
TRICS site selection parameters an officer will accept
Trip rate arguments are won on the selection screen, not the output. Agree the category, region, date range and exclusions with the highway authority before you extract anything.
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