PlanScope Blog – Page 78
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 78
9506 articlesLight wells and daylight to lower ground floor flats
A lower ground room sees only a slice of sky, so daylight has to be engineered rather than assumed. These are the geometric moves that work, and the ones councils refuse.
Conditions that tie a permission to one Class E sub-use
Class E lets a use move freely between shops, offices, gyms and clinics. A single condition on an old permission can take all of that away, and most buyers never read it.
Walkthrough: a dropped kerb refused on highway grounds
This illustrative walkthrough follows a front garden parking proposal from a highway refusal through to a revised scheme, and separates the planning permission from the highway authority's own crossing consent.
Extensions of time and the eight week deadline
The eight week period is a deadline for the council, not a promise to you. Agreeing an extension helps the authority's performance figures and sometimes helps your application. Knowing when it does which is the useful part.
Dropped kerb application or planning permission: which one
A dropped kerb and the planning permission for a driveway are two different consents from two different parts of the council. This explains which one you need, in what order, and what each costs you in time.
Which reports a dental or medical surgery change of use needs
A dental or medical surgery sits within Class E(e), which means the change of use is often not development at all. The documents that matter are the ones about parking turnover, plant noise and waste storage.
Objecting to a scheme that has been amended twice
When drawings change twice during determination, the question stops being whether the original scheme was acceptable and becomes whether you were given a fair chance to comment on what is now proposed.
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations and planning design
Secure information boxes, wayfinding signage and firefighting lift checks are operational duties, but they presuppose space, access and visibility that have to exist in the design. Here is what planning drawings should anticipate.
Firefighting shafts, dry risers and the planning layout
A firefighting shaft is set early and is expensive to move later. This covers what the shaft contains, where the inlet has to sit relative to appliance access, and what the planning drawings should show at application stage.
Setting a daylight baseline where a neighbour holds consent
Where the neighbouring site holds a permission nobody has built, the existing condition may flatter your scheme or punish it. This sets out when a consented baseline is realistic and how to present both without inviting a double counting objection.
Biodiversity gain plan or a BNG assessment: what differs
The metric assessment you commission to design a scheme and the biodiversity gain plan you submit to discharge the deemed condition are different documents with different deadlines. Mixing them up stops a site from starting lawfully.
Proving a lawful existing use when the records are gone
A certificate of lawfulness puts the burden of proof on you, and the standard is the balance of probability. This sets out the documents that carry weight when the paperwork for the original use has vanished.
Walkthrough: a dormer refused in an article 4 area
Where an article 4 direction has removed householder permitted development rights, a rear dormer needs full permission and is judged against the council's design guidance. This illustrative walkthrough follows one through refusal to approval.
What happens in the first fortnight after you apply
The two weeks after you press submit decide when your eight week clock starts and who will write the report on your extension. Here is the sequence, and the small number of things worth doing while it runs.
Shop front replacement: which consents and reports you need
Replacing a shop front and its signage normally runs through two separate consent regimes at once. This explains which one catches what, where deemed consent runs out, and the documents a council will expect with each application.
Relevant demolition or ordinary planning permission
Conservation area consent went in 2013 but the criminal offence stayed. Here is how relevant demolition differs from the Part 11 prior approval route.
Counting back to the original dwellinghouse
Previous owners' extensions eat into your allowance, and conservatories count. Here is how the original dwellinghouse baseline is fixed and proved.
Which reports a dark kitchen needs for planning
Dark kitchens are decided on odour and rider management. Here is the document pack, and why the use class is less settled than operators assume.
Householder applications where Article 4 applies
An Article 4 direction withdraws a permitted development right, it does not ban the work. Here is how to read the schedule and apply without a fee.
Report bundle for a bin and cycle store on flats
Blocks of flats have no householder permitted development rights, so a refuse or cycle store needs an application. Here is the evidence it turns on.
Holiday lets and the use class position
A holiday let stays in Class C3 until the character of the use changes materially. Here is how that test is applied and what occupancy conditions mean.
The biodiversity gain site register and how entries work
The register is how off-site biodiversity units are verified rather than asserted. Here is what an entry contains and the four checks a reviewer should make.
Archaeological evaluation and winter ground conditions
Saturated ground flattens the soil differences evaluation depends on. Here is what still works in winter, what does not, and how to programme around it.
Evacuation lifts and what planning drawings must show
An evacuation lift needs a protected lobby, a refuge clear of the stair and a secondary power route. All of that is plan area, so decide it before the core is fixed.
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