PlanScope Blog – Page 62
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 62
9535 articlesData centres: which use class applies
Classifying a data centre is a matter of fact and degree, and the answer rarely decides the scheme. Grid capacity and plant noise do.
Checking a consultant's membership and currency
Letters after a name tell you somebody passed an assessment once. Currency, indemnity cover and the right institute are what protect you.
Planning a barber, nail bar or beauty salon
Most personal care uses now sit inside Class E, so the use rarely needs permission. Extraction, waste and registration are where the work is.
Small sites policy and what it supports in outer London
Policy H2 gives small residential schemes in London a presumption in their favour. Knowing which category your site falls into is most of the argument.
Schemes of delegation: when a decision goes to committee
Most planning applications are decided by officers under delegated powers. The scheme of delegation sets out which ones are not, and that changes your timetable.
Specifying a measured survey for a historic building record
A measured survey brief that names a method but not an accuracy or a deliverable produces data nobody can use. Here is what the specification needs to say.
What a linked 1D-2D flood model shows, and what it does not
A linked channel and floodplain model answers questions published mapping cannot. It also introduces assumptions a reviewer will test one by one.
Neighbourhood plans and the weight a made plan carries
Once a neighbourhood plan is made it is part of the statutory development plan. That changes how an application is decided, not just how it is debated.
Repurposing a former bank branch within Class E
Former banks moved from Class A2 into Class E in 2020, so many changes need no permission. The traps are old conditions, the vault and the upper floors.
Odour assessment competence and who can sign one
An odour risk assessment needs dispersion judgement as well as ductwork knowledge. The two skills rarely sit in the same person, and almost never in the supplier.
Finding borehole and ground data before you buy a plot
Published borehole records and geological mapping cost nothing and answer most of the ground questions a desk study has to raise. Here is how to search them.
Lead local flood authority pre-application advice
The lead local flood authority sets your discharge rate and decides which drainage components it will accept. Asking before you lay out the plots saves redesign.
Mobile catering on private land and the 28-day rule
Part 4 Class B allows temporary use of land for 28 days a year. It does not apply inside the curtilage of a building, which rules out most car parks.
Tall buildings and policy D9: location, design, impact
Policy D9 only supports tall buildings where the borough has identified suitable locations. The design and impact limbs decide the rest.
The less than substantial harm test in practice
Less than substantial harm covers almost everything short of destruction. The work is in locating the harm on the scale and evidencing the benefits against it.
Defence safeguarding and the Ministry of Defence response
Safeguarded defence land sits over large areas of England without appearing on most constraint checks. Here is how the consultation works and what triggers it.
Pharmacies: Class E(a) or Class E(e)?
Both limbs of Class E can fit a pharmacy. The primary use decides it, and the answer changes what you can do with the unit later.
Transport evidence: who signs a trip generation note
A trip generation note is only as good as the judgement behind the site selection. Here is the competence highway authorities look for and what to put in the brief.
Checking Article 4 directions on planning.data.gov.uk
The national Article 4 dataset is the fastest first check on a site, and the least reliable last word. Here is how to use it properly.
Planning a laundrette or dry cleaner
A self-service laundrette sits outside every use class, while a dry cleaning shop usually does not. The classification decides whether you need permission at all.
Carbon offset payments and the borough offset fund
A carbon offset payment covers the gap between what a London scheme achieves on site and net zero carbon. Here is how the sum is worked out and secured.
Curtilage structures and listed building consent
Listing extends to anything fixed to the building and to curtilage structures that have formed part of the land since before 1 July 1948. Neither appears in the list entry, and unauthorised works are an offence.
Scheduled monuments at risk and what the register does
Register entry changes nothing about scheduled monument consent under the 1979 Act. It records condition and vulnerability, which helps an owner managing the asset and hurts one who neglects it.
Laboratories and Class E(g)(ii) research and development
Research and development sits in Class E(g)(ii), so office to laboratory conversion often needs no change of use. The amenity test in limb (g), and the rooftop plant, are where applications are decided.
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