PlanScope Blog – Page 60
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 60
9538 articlesWhat changes for a scheme of one new dwelling
One new house is not a householder application. Net gain exemptions, the levy start notice and foul drainage evidence are where single plot schemes go wrong.
Lighting a deep single storey rear extension
Daylight falls away fast from a vertical window, so a deep rear extension needs light from above or from the side. The decisions have to come before the steelwork.
Geophysical survey for archaeology: when it works
A geophysical survey tells you where to trench, not whether archaeology is present. On the wrong geology it can miss a villa entirely.
Raising ground levels and the displacement objection
Raising a building platform above the flood level removes storage the river still needs. Here is when that is acceptable, what conditions follow and the alternatives.
Which designations trigger an EIA screening opinion
A sensitive area does not require EIA. It removes the size thresholds, so any project of a Schedule 2 description must be screened however small it is.
What changes when a scheme includes affordable housing
Crossing the major development threshold brings a percentage requirement, a tenure mix to agree with a registered provider, and a section 106 agreement that has to be enforceable years later.
Wind microclimate assessment for a London tower
A usable wind assessment names its test locations, states the criteria and season for each, and includes consented but unbuilt neighbours in a cumulative scenario.
Kitchen extract discharge height above the roof
Filtration removes grease and some odour. Termination height decides where the rest goes. Discharge below the roof line releases into the recirculating wake above the windows.
Answering a tree officer's loss of amenity objection
A tree officer's objection is a professional opinion, not a refusal. Answer it on arboricultural terms by isolating what is disputed and evidencing that point alone.
Delivery and servicing evidence for a change of use
Highways officers want to know which lorry arrives, where it stops, for how long and whether loading is legal at that hour. The Traffic Regulation Order decides most of it.
Unauthorised metal detecting before an application
Finds lifted without recording destroy the pattern they formed, producing a false negative in the desk study. The result is usually a larger evaluation, not a smaller one.
Floodplain compensation storage and level for level
Balancing volumes is not enough. Floodplain compensation has to replace storage at the same elevations, connected to the same reach, and be secured on land you control.
Protected open space and the policy exceptions
Policy offers three ways through an open space designation: surplus against an up-to-date assessment, equivalent or better replacement, or alternative recreational provision. Nothing else counts.
What changes when a site crosses into a flood zone
A site that straddles a flood zone boundary is judged on where you build, not on a single classification. Here is how the sequential approach, levels and access work.
Energy strategy: Be Lean, Be Clean, Be Green, Be Seen
The London energy hierarchy is four steps, and the fourth commits you to reporting metered performance for years after occupation. Here is what each stage has to evidence.
The 42 decibel test for an air source heat pump
The 42 dB(A) limit in the MCS planning standards is a calculation at your neighbour's window, not a measurement at yours. Here is how it is worked out and what fails it.
Trees, subsidence and the planning answer
Blaming a protected tree for cracks is not enough. Consent turns on a full season of monitoring, trial pits, soil desiccation data and root identification, plus the heave risk of removal.
Reading a parking standard: maximum or minimum
A parking standard is useless until you know whether it is a ceiling or a floor. Here is where standards live, what counts as a space and how to evidence a departure.
Converting a redundant church or chapel
A redundant church loses the ecclesiastical exemption, so conversion runs through ordinary listed building consent. The real constraints are the single volume, the fittings and the churchyard.
Wet pond or dry basin: choosing between them
A retention pond and a dry detention basin do the same hydraulic job. The choice turns on treatment performance, water balance, aerodrome safeguarding and who maintains it.
Green and wildlife corridors: what the policy restricts
A mapped wildlife corridor protects the ability of species to move, not the intrinsic value of the land it crosses. That changes how severance, lighting and permeability are assessed.
Trampoline parks and indoor leisure capacity
Indoor trampoline parks usually sit in Class E(d), so the planning risk moves to restrictive conditions, structure-borne impact noise and the occupancy figure the fire strategy allows.
What changes at eighteen metres in height
Eighteen metres or seven storeys pulls in Planning Gateway One, the higher-risk building regime and three Building Regulations changes. Here is how the tests are measured and what each one costs the plan.
Play space on a London podium: making the deck work
Podium play space is judged on whether it functions, not on whether it measures 10 m2 per child. Here is how supervision, loading, drainage and wind shape the deck.
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