PlanScope Blog – Page 50
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 50
9557 articlesHow to request an EIA screening opinion
A screening opinion decides whether a scheme is EIA development. Third parties can ask for one, and the authority has three weeks to respond.
Candour with the council about an AI-assisted draft
Planning law has no duty to disclose drafting software. It does have consequences for inaccurate information, from rerun consultation to revocation.
Classroom daylight and what school schemes must show
Planning assesses what a school block does to its neighbours' daylight. Classroom daylight is governed by the DfE output specification, BS EN 17037 and BREEAM.
Carbon obligations in a section 106: review and monitoring
Carbon clauses in a section 106 turn an energy strategy into a debt. Triggers, monitoring duties, tolerance bands and indexation decide what it actually costs.
Resubmit or appeal after a planning refusal
A fresh application lets you change the scheme and may be fee exempt. An appeal defends the scheme as refused. The refusal reasons tell you which route fits.
Phasing fees across outline and reserved matters
A two-stage consent means a fee at outline and a further fee for each reserved matters submission. How the arithmetic works and when a full application costs less.
Planning permission for a dog exercise field for hire
Renting a field to dog owners by the hour is a material change of use. The fence height, barking noise and lane access decide whether it is approved.
Root protection area: how the BS 5837 radius is set
The root protection area is a radius of 12 times stem diameter, capped at 707 m2. How to measure it, reshape it defensibly and show it on the drawings.
What a planning budget covers and what belongs in build cost
The planning budget is cash spent before you own a consent. Allocating surveys, fees and condition compliance correctly keeps the self-build mortgage drawdown and the planning spend apart.
Consenting a betting shop or adult gaming centre
Betting offices and adult gaming centres sit outside the use classes, so an application is always required. Local clustering policy and frontage treatment decide the outcome.
Material operations and the moment development begins
Development begins on the earliest date a material operation listed in section 56(4) is carried out. An undischarged pre-commencement condition can defeat an otherwise valid start.
Unilateral undertaking against a bilateral section 106 deed
Both instruments are made under section 106 and both bind the land. The difference is that a unilateral undertaking cannot contain any obligation on the authority.
Budgeting for the local validation checklist
Local validation requirements drive the cost of an application pack, not the national list. Price each triggered item as a named line before quoting, and challenge the items that cannot be material.
Consenting a live music venue and the agent of change test
Live music venues are sui generis and the agent of change principle decides who bears the mitigation cost. Low frequency sound insulation and patron dispersal are what the case turns on.
Reports for a vertical farm in a warehouse
A controlled environment vertical farm in an existing warehouse needs permission, and the use class is unsettled. Grid capacity, light spill, plant noise and trade effluent drive the evidence.
A council's statement of community involvement explained
Section 18 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 requires every authority to publish a statement of community involvement. The statutory publicity minimum is a separate duty.
Grey belt and the golden rules for Green Belt release
The grey belt route gives a development management answer where a plan has not kept up, conditional on golden rules covering affordable housing, infrastructure and public green space.
Objecting on tree grounds and asking for a protection order
Asking for a Tree Preservation Order takes a letter and the right evidence. In a conservation area the six week notice under section 211 is the mechanism that actually saves trees.
Measuring whether a drafting tool saved time
Measure the whole cycle from instruction to a document you will sign, including verification and rework. Without a baseline from your own time records, there is nothing to compare.
Temporary loss of light from scaffolding and hoardings
Temporary obstruction of light by scaffolding or a hoarding is not a planning matter. The controls sit in highway licences, construction management plans and private nuisance.
Householder application against a full application
The householder category is defined by what you are proposing, not chosen. It carries a different fee, lighter validation and the 12 week expedited appeal route.
Heritage budgeting: desk assessment against intrusive recording
Heritage spend splits between desk-based analysis and intrusive recording or evaluation. The recording level and the post-excavation assumption decide what the client actually pays.
Consenting an anaerobic digestion plant on a farm
An on-farm anaerobic digestion plant needs planning permission and an environmental permit. Where the feedstock comes from and where the energy goes decides how the use is characterised.
Reports for a dental practice in a converted house
A house to dental surgery conversion needs full permission for a change of use from Class C3 to Class E(e). Parking demand and plant noise are what actually decide the application.
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