PlanScope Blog – Page 82
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 82
9499 articlesChoosing the week for a baseline noise survey
A background sound survey in the wrong week gets rejected. Here are the weeks and days to avoid, the reference time intervals that govern the measurement, and the disclosures an officer expects.
Pubs and drinking establishments after the 2020 changes
Class A4 went in September 2020 and pubs became sui generis, which removed every permitted change out of a pub. Here is the route, the policy test and the evidence.
Who prepares a flood sequential test and how it is judged
Anyone may write a flood sequential test, which is why so many are rejected. Here is what the planning officer assesses, and what the Environment Agency will not look at.
Reading a drainage asset record from a water company
A sewer asset plan shows position, size and flow direction, and rarely much else. Here is how to request it, read it and verify what it leaves out.
EIA screening at 150 dwellings and five hectares
The housing screening trigger is more than 150 dwellings, and the five hectare overall area limb catches far more schemes. Here is how screening actually works.
Travel Plan or framework travel plan: which to submit
Framework, interim or full travel plan: the choice follows the stage at which the occupier is known. Here is what each contains, how targets are set and how they are secured.
Costing the sequential and exception tests for flooding
A flood sequential test is priced by its search area, not its page count. Here is what drives the cost, where the availability evidence comes from, and how to avoid paying for the work twice.
Appealing a refused change of use to a nursery
A day nursery sits in Class E(f), so refusals cite amenity and highway safety rather than principle. Here is the evidence that answers each reason on appeal.
Evidence base for a 150 dwelling site
A 150 dwelling scheme crosses the Active Travel England consultation threshold and sits against the Schedule 2 urban development indicators. This is the evidence base and the programme behind it.
Townscape evidence for a roof extension in a terrace
A terrace roof extension is assessed against the roofscape of the group, not the single house. Here is the survey, the proportions and the views that make the case.
Budgeting a conversion: structural and asbestos surveys
Conversion survey cost turns on whether the survey opens things up. Here is what structural and asbestos investigations cover, when each is needed, and the costs that only appear on site.
Refusal on noise from an existing business nearby
Where a scheme adjoins an established business, national policy puts the mitigation burden on the applicant. Here is how to measure the operation properly and what design responses persuade an inspector.
Which reports nine dwellings need and which ten do
At ten dwellings an application becomes major, with a longer period, wider publicity and an affordable housing requirement. Biodiversity, flood and ecology evidence does not change.
Water supply evidence in a water stressed area
Water evidence in a stressed area has two jobs: proving supply can be delivered, and proving the development will use less. Here is what each needs and which conditions follow.
What a Gateway One fire statement costs to produce
A Gateway One fire statement is quick to write and expensive to get wrong. Here is what the prescribed form needs, what drives the fee, and the design decisions to take first.
Ownership certificate errors and invalid applications
An incorrect ownership certificate can stop an application at validation or delay a decision. Here is what each certificate declares, who counts as an owner, and how to correct an error.
Foul drainage evidence with a package treatment plant
A package treatment plant application turns on the sewer enquiry, the regulatory route, percolation testing and the separation distances. Here is the evidence to submit and the order to produce it in.
Badger surveys, sett activity and the closed season
Badger sett closure is normally licensed only in the summer and autumn, so the window controls the programme. Here is how setts are classified, when to survey, and what the 1992 Act prohibits on site.
C3 to C4: the HMO threshold and Article 4 directions
The change from C3 to C4 is permitted development across most of England, but Article 4 directions have removed it across many urban areas. Here is how to check, and what an application then needs.
Structural engineer or building surveyor: who to instruct
A structural engineer designs and calculates. A building surveyor diagnoses what is wrong. Here is which report a council wants, which regime each belongs to, and the order to appoint them in.
Finding section 106 and levy spend data locally
Councils must publish an annual infrastructure funding statement showing what developer contributions were received, allocated and spent. Here is how to read one and what the numbers do not say.
Major development status without any new floorspace
Only one limb of the major development definition mentions floorspace. Site area, waste and minerals catch schemes with no buildings at all, and bring the longer determination period with them.
Air quality assessment or air quality neutral assessment
An air quality assessment measures concentrations at receptors. An air quality neutral assessment compares the scheme's emissions with a published benchmark. Here is which applies, and when both do.
Costing a topographical and measured building survey
Survey prices depend on extent, detail, deliverables and access. Here is how to write a brief that produces comparable quotes, and the omissions that force a return visit.
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