PlanScope Blog – Page 63
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 63
9532 articlesOverheating assessments and CIBSE TM59 competence
Nobody is licensed to run a CIBSE TM59 overheating assessment, so competence is judged on the inputs. The weather file, assumptions schedule and per-room results are the places to look.
What MRTPI tells you about a planning agent
Chartered membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute signals assessed competence and a binding code of conduct. It is not a financial remedy, and planning consultancy has no protected title at all.
Who may write a BS 5837 tree survey
BS 5837:2012 asks for an arboriculturist defined by education, training and experience rather than by licence. Councils look for a relevant qualification, an assessed professional grade and planning experience.
The three year deadline on a prior approval
A planning permission must be begun within three years. A Part 3 prior approval must be completed within three years of the prior approval date, and the condition sits in the Order where nobody can vary it.
Who may sign a SuDS maintenance and management plan
There is no competent person regime for sustainable drainage maintenance plans. The question an authority is really asking is who holds the duty in twenty years, how it is funded and how plant reaches each component.
Agricultural land grade 3a or 3b and why it matters
Grades 1, 2 and 3a are best and most versatile land. Grade 3b is not. Provisional Agricultural Land Classification maps show grade 3 undivided, so only a field survey to the 1988 guidelines can settle it.
When priority habitat inventory entries are wrong
The priority habitat inventory is assembled from surveys of varying age and method, so polygons often do not match the ground. Only a properly seasoned survey by a competent ecologist will displace one.
Local nature recovery strategies in applications
A local nature recovery strategy is not a development plan document, but it sets the strategic significance category in the statutory biodiversity metric and authorities must have regard to it under section 40 NERC.
Proving the surface water discharge hierarchy
The discharge hierarchy puts infiltration first and a combined sewer last. Stepping down requires dated evidence: BRE 365 percolation results at the design depth, riparian correspondence and the undertaker's written position.
Finished floor levels, freeboard and the right datum
Finished floor level is the one flood mitigation an officer can verify with a tape measure. Set it from the design flood level plus an agreed freeboard, state it in metres above Ordnance Datum, and plan the verification early.
Reservoir flood risk and what an assessment covers
A site downstream of a large raised reservoir can sit in Flood Zone 1 and still appear on inundation mapping. Reservoir risk is residual risk, assessed through depth, velocity, arrival time and the evacuation strategy.
Non return valves and basement sewer surcharge
Sewer surcharge floods basements through their own drains rather than over the threshold. An anti flooding valve to BS EN 13564, a sealed sump and a pumped rising main are the usual answer.
Serviced offices and flexible workspace in Class E(g)
Co-working and managed workspace fall within Class E(g)(i) alongside conventional offices, so most changes need no application. Subdivision, a change of character and conditions restricting Class E flexibility are the exceptions.
Religious use in an industrial unit: the route
A place of worship in an industrial unit always needs planning permission. The use class is rarely the obstacle: employment land protection policy, Sunday parking peaks and fire occupancy capacity decide the outcome.
Waste transfer and scrap metal: which class applies
Article 3(6) of the Use Classes Order excludes scrapyards and certain waste installations from every class, making them sui generis. Transfer stations sit in a greyer area, and the permit regime runs alongside planning.
Class M: betting shops and takeaways to homes
Class M turns a small shop, betting office or hot food takeaway into a dwellinghouse through prior approval. The 150 m2 floorspace cap and the 20 March 2013 qualifying use date decide most cases before design begins.
Article 2(3) land: where householder rights shrink
Conservation areas, National Landscapes, National Parks, the Broads and World Heritage Sites are Article 2(3) land. That designation strips several Part 1 householder rights automatically, before any Article 4 direction is considered.
Container storage yards and the use of open land
Storage on open land falls within Class B8 because the Use Classes Order applies to land as well as buildings. Stacking height, surfacing, drainage and HGV movements decide whether a yard is acceptable.
Class L and moving between C3 and C4 use
Class L permits a dwellinghouse to become a small house in multiple occupation and back again, with no application. The limits are the household test, the six-resident ceiling and the Article 4 directions that withdraw the right.
Costing a stopping up order for a highway or footpath
Public rights do not lapse through disuse and planning permission does not override them. This covers the section 247 and 257 routes, what objectors actually argue about, and how to keep the order off the critical path.
Industrial and warehouse extensions under Part 7
Part 7 Class H lets an occupier extend an industrial building or warehouse without an application, within limits that are tighter than they look. This covers the allowance, the boundary condition and the new process restriction.
Townscape assessor competence and peer review
Townscape judgements are opinions, so competence shows in whether the reasoning is traceable. This covers the disciplines that do this work, baseline discipline, design review weight and what a peer review should test.
Adopted parking standards: maximum, minimum and where they bind
A maximum caps provision, a minimum sets a floor, and whoever departs from either carries the evidence. This covers where standards sit in the plan, how accessibility zones work and what a departure needs.
Culverts, de-culverting and the riparian owner's duties
A culverted watercourse is the riparian owner's responsibility whether or not anything is built. This covers the duties, the consent regimes, capacity and blockage assessment, and what a drainage strategy should propose.
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