PlanScope Blog – Page 55
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 55
9547 articlesAnnexes and the ancillary use test
Planning does not care who lives in an annexe. It asks whether the accommodation is ancillary to the house or a separate planning unit, and the answer changes everything about the application.
Roof terraces on a rear extension and overlooking
Balconies, verandas and raised platforms are excluded from Class A, so any roof terrace on a rear extension is a full application. Here is how overlooking is assessed and what mitigation works.
Rear extension on a 1930s semi in a conservation area
An illustrative walkthrough of a single storey rear extension in a conservation area, including the article 4 direction that actually removed the permitted development right.
Scotland: pre-application consultation duties
For Scottish national and major developments, consultation is a statutory duty with a 12 week minimum notice period. What the notice, the event and the report must cover.
L shaped dormers on a terrace: what Class B allows
An L shaped dormer is one enlargement across two roof planes. Whether the 20 centimetre set back applies to the lower limb depends on whether the back addition is original.
Outlook and why it is not the same as daylight
Outlook is about how enclosed a room feels. The content of what you used to look at is not protected. Why the distinction decides how an objection is treated.
BREEAM energy credits and the condition that secures them
A condition requiring a certified rating is really a condition requiring the low carbon specification to survive value engineering. How to set it up so it does.
Woodland and area Tree Preservation Orders compared
The difference between an area and a woodland designation is time. One is a snapshot of what stood there; the other covers everything that grows afterwards.
Wales: the C5 and C6 use classes for second homes
Since October 2022 Wales has separate use classes for second homes and short-term lets. What that means for buying, switching letting models and proving an existing use.
Rear dormer proportions and the 20cm eaves set back
The 20 centimetre set back is measured along the roof slope from the original eaves, and it changes the dormer's proportions and the headroom at the back wall.
Professional indemnity and AI-assisted planning documents
The cover and the duty are unchanged: reasonable skill and care in providing professional services. What changes is what insurers ask at renewal and what your files must show.
Piling near a railway, tunnel or sewer: asset protection
The asset owner's consent sits outside the planning permission. What triggers a separate process, what the agreement covers, and why it is usually the critical path.
Sunlight to gardens in a back-land terrace scheme
Orientation decides most back land schemes. The equinox shadow geometry, why the existing boundary condition is your best evidence, and when single storey is the only answer.
Wales: phosphate limits on rivers and what they stop
Where a Welsh site drains to a river SAC failing its phosphorus targets, the authority cannot conclude there is no adverse effect. The drainage routes that let a scheme proceed.
Energy statements for a major refurbishment
A refurbishment energy statement has a real baseline and a constrained set of measures. How to establish both, and how to set up the demolition comparator honestly.
Trees protected by a planning condition, not an Order
Felling a tree under a Tree Preservation Order is an offence. Felling one a condition required you to keep is a breach that can put the whole development outside its permission.
Mobility hubs and shared transport secured by condition
A condition can require the bays and the power supply. It cannot fund an operator or make a car club viable. How to split the commitment so the scheme survives withdrawal.
Hip to gable loft conversions and the 50 cubic metre limit
Class B allows 40 cubic metres on a terrace house and 50 otherwise, measured against the original roof. Filling one hip end takes a large share of it.
Can an AI-drafted planning statement be submitted as is
The drafting method does not shift responsibility. Whoever signs the application form owns every fact in the pack, and the ownership certificate carries criminal liability.
Retaining an existing frame: the retrofit appraisal
Where a plan expects reuse before demolition, the appraisal has to quantify capacity, condition and adaptability, and use the same assumptions as the carbon assessment.
Window mapping: which neighbouring rooms actually count
Before any vertical sky component is calculated, someone decides which rooms are assessed. How that mapping is done, sourced and recorded so it survives scrutiny.
The energy hierarchy applied to a single self-build
One house does not need a major scheme's carbon modelling. What the local validation list actually asks for, and how to answer it in two or three pages.
Statutory nuisance and why permission is no defence
Part III of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 contains no defence of holding planning permission. How abatement notices work, and what best practicable means requires of an operator.
Development under a canopy and future pressure to fell
The future pressure to fell argument refuses layouts where dwellings sit too close to retained trees. What the shading evidence has to show and how separation is designed in.
Not sure which documents your council will ask for?
Enter your postcode and PlanScope recommends the right reports for your project, then drafts them in minutes.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope