PlanScope Blog – Page 8
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 8
8407 articlesSunlight to gardens in a back-land terrace scheme
Orientation decides most back land schemes. The equinox shadow geometry, why the existing boundary condition is your best evidence, and when single storey is the only answer.
Wales: phosphate limits on rivers and what they stop
Where a Welsh site drains to a river SAC failing its phosphorus targets, the authority cannot conclude there is no adverse effect. The drainage routes that let a scheme proceed.
Energy statements for a major refurbishment
A refurbishment energy statement has a real baseline and a constrained set of measures. How to establish both, and how to set up the demolition comparator honestly.
Trees protected by a planning condition, not an Order
Felling a tree under a Tree Preservation Order is an offence. Felling one a condition required you to keep is a breach that can put the whole development outside its permission.
Mobility hubs and shared transport secured by condition
A condition can require the bays and the power supply. It cannot fund an operator or make a car club viable. How to split the commitment so the scheme survives withdrawal.
Hip to gable loft conversions and the 50 cubic metre limit
Class B allows 40 cubic metres on a terrace house and 50 otherwise, measured against the original roof. Filling one hip end takes a large share of it.
Can an AI-drafted planning statement be submitted as is
The drafting method does not shift responsibility. Whoever signs the application form owns every fact in the pack, and the ownership certificate carries criminal liability.
Retaining an existing frame: the retrofit appraisal
Where a plan expects reuse before demolition, the appraisal has to quantify capacity, condition and adaptability, and use the same assumptions as the carbon assessment.
Window mapping: which neighbouring rooms actually count
Before any vertical sky component is calculated, someone decides which rooms are assessed. How that mapping is done, sourced and recorded so it survives scrutiny.
The energy hierarchy applied to a single self-build
One house does not need a major scheme's carbon modelling. What the local validation list actually asks for, and how to answer it in two or three pages.
Statutory nuisance and why permission is no defence
Part III of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 contains no defence of holding planning permission. How abatement notices work, and what best practicable means requires of an operator.
Development under a canopy and future pressure to fell
The future pressure to fell argument refuses layouts where dwellings sit too close to retained trees. What the shading evidence has to show and how separation is designed in.
Network Rail consultation where a crossing is affected
Where a scheme adds movements across a level crossing, the rail operator's risk assessment governs the outcome rather than highway capacity. What the evidence has to show.
Wales: the section 6 biodiversity duty on applications
Wales has no statutory biodiversity metric. Instead, section 6 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 and the step-wise approach in Planning Policy Wales require an officer to judge whether your scheme delivers a net benefit.
Wrap-around extensions and the two storey element
A side return joined to a rear projection is tested against the side and rear limits of Class A at the same time, and usually fails both. What that means for the application.
Tree-lined streets and what new layouts must show
Drawing green circles on a layout does not create rooting volume. What a tree-lined street needs in section, and which constraints delete trees after permission.
Section 59 claims for extraordinary traffic damage
A section 59 claim arrives after the road has been resurfaced, by which point the only useful evidence is the baseline survey nobody took.
Wales: Future Wales and the development plan hierarchy
Future Wales sits inside the statutory development plan rather than above it, and conflict between tiers is resolved by hierarchy rather than by date.
Water supply capacity: what a developer must evidence
Four documents carry the water supply case, none of which the applicant can write. Why the enquiry belongs alongside transport and drainage scoping, not at drafting stage.
Prior approval: the application that is not quite one
The permission already exists. A prior approval application only determines the matters the class lists, which is both the attraction of the route and its main trap.
Why an AI draft flags a missing site fact
A plausible invented floor level is worse than a blank, because nobody checks it. How to read the flags in a draft as a scope document for the application.
Basement under a protected tree: roots and consent
Cellular confinement spreads load above undisturbed roots and does nothing for an excavation. What actually decides whether a basement under a protected tree is possible.
Daylight modelling inputs that get challenged
The argument in daylight review is almost never about the test. It is about reflectance, geometry, room use assumptions and the baseline that was run.
Renewable energy requirements on employment units
A renewables percentage applied to a shell and core warehouse depends entirely on what it is measured against. How to settle the definition and draft a condition that can be complied with.
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