PlanScope Blog – Page 64
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 64
9531 articlesSoft play centres: Class E(d) or Class F2?
Indoor recreation sits in Class E(d); Class F2 covers outdoor recreation and community halls. This explains how to classify a play centre, why it matters for later flexibility, and the noise and parking evidence expected.
Bat roosts and roof works under permitted development
A re-roof or loft conversion needs no planning application, so nothing prompts an ecology check. This sets out when to commission a roost assessment, the survey seasons that control the programme, and who is liable.
Who prepares an open space assessment
Open space work is survey and data handling measured against the authority's own standards. This covers who should lead by typology, how catchments should be drawn, and the delivery questions the assessment must answer.
Blue roofs in the drainage calculation
The hydraulics of roof attenuation are straightforward; getting the volume credited is not. This covers storage depth against structural loading, flow control modelling, failure modes and the drawings reviewers expect.
Costing an affordable housing review mechanism
Early and late stage review mechanisms are decided by their definitions, not their headline percentages. This covers the inputs that move the answer, who pays for the review and the caps to secure before signing.
Supplementary planning documents and how far they bind
SPDs elaborate adopted policy and cannot create new requirements. This sets out the procedural basis for their weight, where design guides and parking standards are contestable, and how to cite one properly.
Correcting an error in a published constraints layer
A case officer cannot move a flood zone or redraw a listing. This sets out which body holds each primary record, what a correction request needs, and how to submit an application while one is pending.
Shisha lounges and where they sit in the use classes order
A shisha venue is classified by what it primarily does, and the smoke-free definition of substantially enclosed premises dictates what can be built. This sets out both tests and the conditions that follow.
Protected trees and permitted development on the same site
Permitted development grants planning permission for the building work, not consent to touch a protected tree. This covers the consent routes, the root protection trap in foundation design, and how to sequence the two.
Who prepares a foul sewage assessment
A foul sewage assessment is judged on three pieces of evidence rather than on the author's title. This sets out who obtains each one, and when a drainage engineer becomes necessary.
Costing an employment land assessment for an allocated site
On an allocated employment site the fee sits in evidence gathering, not analysis. This covers the marketing records councils expect, the suitability tests that decide it, and how to sequence the work.
Emerging local plans and the weight they carry
Weight attaches to individual emerging policies, not to plans. This sets out the three national tests, how weight moves through examination, and how to use main modifications in a planning case.
Choosing between the central and upper end climate allowance
The Environment Agency publishes bands rather than a single climate uplift. This explains how vulnerability classification, flood zone and catchment select the allowance, and how to document the choice so a reviewer can check it.
Who prepares a circular economy statement
A circular economy statement stands or falls on quantified material data. This looks at which member of the design team should lead it, where the tonnages come from, and who carries the post-completion reporting duty.
When a designation boundary runs through part of a site
Split sites are assessed under two policy regimes at once. This covers establishing the boundary from the primary record, placing built form clear of it, and dealing with setting effects across the line.
Petrol stations, forecourt shops and ancillary retail
A filling station falls in no use class, so the shop is lawful only while it stays ancillary. This sets out the ancillary test, the floorspace conditions that control it, and the storage and charging consents that sit alongside planning.
Permitted development rights on a newly built plot
Permitted development on a new build house is routinely removed by condition under Article 3(4) of the GPDO 2015. Here is how to find the condition on the estate permission, and the routes available once you have.
Costing an odour assessment for a kitchen or waste use
The fee for an odour assessment depends on whether the council accepts a qualitative risk based appraisal or expects dispersion modelling. Here is what sits behind each, and how to scope the work before you commission it.
Permission for housing on a car showroom site
A car showroom redevelops on its contamination report. Staging the intrusive investigation around demolition is what determines the programme.
Permission for a rooftop extension to a car park
Development above a multi storey car park stands or falls on column and foundation capacity. Get the intrusive structural appraisal done before anything else is commissioned.
Reports for a sand and gravel extension of six hectares
A six hectare gravel extension is decided by the mineral planning authority, needs an EIA screening opinion, and turns on hydrogeology and restoration rather than on blasting.
Costing a telecommunications compliance declaration for a mast
An ICNIRP declaration is produced by the operator's own radio engineers and closes the health issue. Siting and appearance are the only matters the council can decide on.
Costing an equalities impact assessment for a public applicant
The public sector equality duty is continuing, so an equalities impact assessment has to be revisited at every material change. Budgeting for one document is the common mistake.
Costing a health impact assessment where policy requires one
A rapid health impact assessment and a full one differ by an order of magnitude in cost. Agreeing the scope with the public health team before anyone is appointed controls the budget.
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