PlanScope Blog – Page 6
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 6
8395 articlesDAERA, environmental assessment and consents in Northern Ireland
DAERA advises councils on planning applications and separately licences discharges, abstraction and marine works. Here is how the two roles interact and how to sequence them.
Grid capacity and a rural renewable scheme
On a constrained network the connection offer tells you what scheme is worth applying for. Treating it as an engineering matter for after permission is how capacity gets wasted.
Loft conversion on a terrace with a party wall
Three consent regimes ran on different clocks, and the party wall award rather than the planning permission set the start date. An illustrative walkthrough.
A 12 unit scheme crossing the major development line
An illustrative walkthrough of a 12 dwelling scheme, showing what changes once the ten unit major threshold and the affordable housing policy threshold are crossed.
Five dwellings on a brownfield infill plot
Below ten units nothing is major, so the exercise is proportionality. This illustrative walkthrough shows which parts of the evidence base a five dwelling scheme actually needed.
Basement light wells, vaults and the public highway
Planning permission covers what shows. Sections 179 and 180 of the Highways Act 1980 cover the structure under the pavement, and neither answers who owns the ground.
Conditions requiring design changes for daylight
A condition can secure glazing, layout and window changes within the approved envelope. It cannot require a materially different development, which is where performance conditions fail.
Checking an AI draft against the validation checklist
The local list published under Article 11 is the document an application is actually validated against. Map every item to a file, and remember that no drafting tool produces drawings.
Why an adopted local plan still has to be read in full
Section 38(6) makes the development plan the starting point, which means the supporting text, the policies map and the allocation requirements all count, not just the policy wording.
Fire statement content: the matters Article 9A lists
The fire statement is a prescribed form, not a report you structure yourself. Here is what each matter needs at planning stage, and what belongs in the later strategy.
Fire safety strategy and fire statement: which one when
A fire statement shows fire safety has shaped the proposal while the layout can still change. A BS 9991 strategy shows how the building complies with Part B. They are not interchangeable.
Roof terraces and the overlooking objection
Part 1 rights apply to dwellinghouses, not flats, so a roof terrace on a flat is always a full application decided on overlooking, noise and appearance.
Dormers and daylight to the neighbour's rear elevation
The geometry of a roof addition means the daylight effect on a neighbour is usually small while the overlooking effect is not. The two need entirely different evidence.
Light wells, front gardens and basement conversions
The excavation is often invisible in planning terms while the light well changes the front elevation. Here is how the two are assessed, and where party wall and drainage duties bite.
Outbuilding eaves heights and the boundary rule
The 2.5 metre boundary cap and the 2.5 metre eaves limit are different rules that apply together. Both are measured from the highest adjacent ground, which is where garden rooms go wrong.
Raising the ridge for loft head height
Class B does not permit an enlargement above the highest part of the existing roof, so any ridge lift is a full application. Check the head height numbers before you commit to one.
Northern Ireland planning agreements: Article 40 to s76
Northern Ireland still calls them Article 40 agreements, but the live power is section 76 of the 2011 Act. With no levy in the jurisdiction, every contribution has to be justified on its own facts.
Scotland: SEPA, flood risk and the drainage evidence
SEPA advises on flood risk using likelihood bands and a vulnerability classification rather than flood zones, and Scotland requires SuDS by legislation rather than policy.
Scotland: scheduled monument consent in practice
Scheduled monument consent is separate from planning permission, granted by Scottish Ministers through Historic Environment Scotland, and working without it is a criminal offence.
Scotland: section 75 obligations and how they differ
The Scottish planning obligation is registered against the title, can be modified or discharged through a statutory procedure, and carries the whole contribution load because Scotland has no levy.
Scotland: processing agreements and what they buy
A processing agreement is a written project plan between applicant and Scottish planning authority. It buys programme certainty and visibility, not a favourable decision.
CIL liability notices and who actually pays the levy
If nobody assumes liability for the Community Infrastructure Levy, it apportions to the owners of the land. The notice sequence, the deadlines and the exemptions that have to be claimed.
Writing an objection an officer has to address
Officers summarise every representation in the report behind their recommendation. An objection written in policy terms, with measured evidence, has to be answered rather than noted.
Material planning considerations in a neighbour objection
A material consideration is anything relating to the use and development of land. Loss of light counts, loss of view does not, and the difference decides whether your objection has to be answered.
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