PlanScope Blog – Page 58
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 58
9542 articlesSearching a council planning register properly
The council portal is a search front end to the statutory planning register, not the register itself. How to search by map rather than address, trace pre-1996 records, and request files that were never scanned.
Nominating a building to a local heritage list
A locally listed building is a non-designated heritage asset, so applications affecting it attract a balanced judgement. What a nomination needs and what the listing does not do.
Dormer proportions and what design guides ask for
Once a dormer needs permission the test becomes design rather than arithmetic. The set-ins, proportions and materials design guides ask for, and how to argue a departure.
Non-material amendment: the narrow route to a small change
Section 96A of the 1990 Act lets a council amend a permission where the change is not material, with no statutory definition, no consultation and no right of appeal. How officers judge it.
Provisional orders and the six month confirmation period
A Tree Preservation Order takes provisional effect immediately and expires after six months unless the authority confirms it. What that window means and what persuades on an objection.
Transport evidence for a drive-through unit
The decisive question on a drive-through is what happens when the stacking lane fills. How to evidence queue capacity, which peaks to test and what conditions follow.
Drainage that puts water onto a neighbour's land
Hard surfacing can be lawful under the GPDO and still leave a neighbour with a claim in nuisance. How the Class F condition works, what evidence is needed and how to design the problem out.
Veteran tree identification and who can confirm it
Ancient and veteran trees are irreplaceable habitats in national policy whether or not they are mapped or covered by a Tree Preservation Order. How status is established and challenged.
What obscure glazing means in a planning condition
Obscure glazing conditions require the obscuration to be a property of the glass and the window to be fixed below 1.7 metres. What the levels mean and what happens if the glass is swapped.
Overshadowing of amenity areas and the two hour test
At least half a garden should receive two hours of sunlight on 21 March, and where that already fails the loss is judged against a 0.8 factor. What the plots should show and when the test misleads.
Heat pumps in an energy strategy: what officers check
A heat pump energy strategy is judged on three things: the seasonal performance figure against the design flow temperature, the external unit's location, and the noise assessment positions.
Lighting design where bats are present
All UK bat species are European protected species, so a lighting layout on a site with bats is an ecological document first. What the plan must show and how the condition should be worded.
Tree surveys where the site cannot be accessed
A BS 5837 survey carried out from outside the boundary can still support an application if estimated values are labelled and root protection areas are calculated on the cautious side.
Trip generation for care homes and extra care housing
Care home traffic comes from staff, visitors, deliveries and visiting professionals rather than residents, and shift handover rather than the highway peak governs parking demand.
Setting a discharge rate into a combined sewer
Where surface water has to reach a combined sewer, the rate offered depends on the sewerage undertaker's capacity position and on how much existing impermeable area you can disconnect.
Policies map notations that are not designations
Regulation 9 of the 2012 Local Planning Regulations makes the policies map an illustration of policy, not a free-standing instrument. How to tell a designation from an indicative annotation.
Rear extension depth on a corner plot
Class A excludes an extension projecting beyond a side elevation that fronts a highway, which is why wrap-around extensions on corner plots need an application while a straight rear extension often does not.
Assessing daylight inside the homes you are building
Internal daylight to new flats is assessed against target illuminance over part of the reference plane for part of the year, not a single average daylight factor. How the methods differ and what fails.
Future Homes Standard transitional rules for consented sites
A planning permission does not fix which edition of the energy requirements applies. The transitional mechanism works plot by plot, so the evidence of a start on each individual dwelling is what matters.
Vertical illuminance at a window and the curfew
Vertical illuminance at a neighbouring window decides most light trespass objections, and the limit drops after the curfew hour. How the calculation plane is set, which zone applies and what mitigation moves the figure.
Damage to a protected tree during development
Wilful damage to a tree protected by a Tree Preservation Order is an offence even where nobody intended to harm the tree. What counts as damage, what the authority can do about it, and how to report a breach.
Rain gardens and the highway adoption problem
Street bioretention usually fails at technical approval over maintenance liability rather than hydraulics. The adoption objections highway authorities raise, and the design and land arrangements that answer them.
Pre-commencement condition: the consent you now need
Section 100ZA of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 stops a council imposing a pre-commencement condition without your written agreement or a prescribed notice. Here is how the procedure works and what to do with a condition schedule.
Emergency vehicle access in residential layouts
Fire appliance access is tested under Building Regulations requirement B5, long after planning permission is granted. The dimensions that drive a residential layout, and how to settle them before plots are sold.
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