PlanScope Blog – Page 81
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 81
9500 articlesThe no sky line test and how room depth drives it
Daylight distribution is a plan test, not a window test. Draw the line at 0.85 metres above floor level, compare the retained lit area against 0.8 of the former value, and room depth does the rest.
Veterinary and dental practices: which use class and why
A dentist moving into a vacant Class E unit needs no permission. A vets' practice may or may not be Class E(e) depending on the authority, and anything with overnight boarding is sui generis.
What a chartered planner adds to a small application
On a householder extension a planner buys you an accurate reading of the policies the case officer will apply, and someone who knows what a mid-case query means. Here is when that is worth paying for.
Using aerodrome safeguarding maps
Safeguarding maps sit with the local planning authority, and the triggers cover far more than tall buildings. Check the map before the layout is fixed, not after.
Eighteen metres and seven storeys, measured properly
Height runs from the lowest adjacent ground to the floor surface of the top storey, not to the parapet. Here is how the storey count, plant exclusions and mezzanine rule actually work.
Ownership certificates A to D: which one to sign
Sign Certificate A only if you own every square metre inside the red line. Where an access crosses someone else's land, notice has to be served and the 21 day clock runs before you submit.
What a planning agent charges and what you get
An agent's fee is separate from the council's application fee, the drawings and any specialist report. Here is what a householder quote usually covers, what it excludes, and where the saving is real.
Appeal evidence when the objection is highway capacity
Capacity refusals turn on whether residual cumulative impacts would be severe. Most appeals are decided on assessment years and the committed development list rather than on mitigation design.
Which reports a large sui generis HMO needs
A shared house for seven or more people sits outside Class C4, so there is no permitted development route. Here is the document pack English councils expect and the amenity and parking points that decide it.
Loss of a single employment unit: the evidence needed
Councils protect employment premises as well as allocated land, so even a 180 m2 lock-up engages policy. The marketing file, the condition schedule and the local demand evidence are what decide a single unit case.
Budgeting a change of use application for a business
Movement within Class E costs nothing, so the first spend should establish the lawful use. Here is where the rest of a change of use budget actually goes.
Agricultural prior notification or full planning permission
Below five hectares there is no permitted development right to erect an agricultural building. Here are the Part 6 limits, what notification controls, and when a full application is faster.
Flood evidence for a one hectare site in Flood Zone 1
Flood Zone 1 describes risk from rivers and the sea only. On a site of one hectare or more the assessment is really about surface water and run-off.
Schedule 3 SuDS approval and why it has not started
Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 is in force in Wales and not in England. Here is what it would change, what covers the gap and what to do now.
Daylight modelling dates: 21 March, June and December
Daylight is modelled under an overcast sky with no sun, so it has no date. Sunlight uses 21 March. Here is which test takes which date, and how to present it.
Nurseries, creches and day centres: which class applies
Class E(f) covers creches, day nurseries and day centres but excludes residential use. Here is what that allows, where it stops, and what the application needs.
Air quality assessor competence and the IAQM guidance
Air quality competence is judged on method rather than letters after a name. Here is what the professional guidance expects, and the six objections officers raise.
Checking railway and canal safeguarding near a site
Network Rail and the Canal & River Trust do not grant permission, but their requirements can make one undeliverable. Here is the check to run before the boundary is fixed.
Why screening thresholds fall away in a sensitive area
Regulation 2(1) makes the sensitive area route an alternative to the thresholds, so four houses can need screening while eight in a conservation area do not.
Landscape or townscape: choosing the right visual appraisal
Landscape assessment characterises land, townscape assessment characterises built form. Here is how to choose, and how to structure one document that does both on an urban fringe site.
Monitoring fees and compliance costs after permission
Obligations and conditions keep generating cost long after the decision notice. Here is what monitoring fees may lawfully cover and what to negotiate at heads of terms.
Refusal citing the absence of a retail sequential test
A refusal for failing to carry out the retail sequential test is curable; a failed test is not. Here is when the test applies and what a defensible one contains.
Which reports a site of exactly half a hectare triggers
Half a hectare is a fallback limb in the major development definition, not a test in its own right. Here is what site area really triggers, and what it does not.
Green infrastructure evidence for a school expansion
A new teaching block usually lands on the only open part of a school site. Here is the evidence each consultee needs, and the order to produce it in.
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