PlanScope Blog – Page 85
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 85
9493 articlesWhat counts as a dwelling when you count units
Major status, affordable housing policy and the determination period all turn on the number of dwellings. Houses in multiple occupation, student rooms and annexes are each counted on a different basis.
Walkthrough: forty eight homes on an allocated site
An illustrative walkthrough of a major housing scheme on a 2.4 hectare allocation, following the thresholds crossed at ten and fifty units and the survey seasons that set the programme.
The cost of a refusal: resubmission against appeal
Design out what can be designed out and appeal only what turns on planning judgement. A comparison of fees, deadlines, professional time and the risk of a section 70A refusal to determine.
Refusal for failing internal space standards
A space standards refusal turns on whether the authority adopted the standard through a plan policy. Permitted development schemes are different, because compliance is a national condition of the class.
Parking evidence on a street with residents permits
In a controlled parking zone the council rations the kerb through permits, so the evidence has to cover permit supply as well as occupancy. What to survey, what to ask the council for, and how the restriction is secured.
A dropped kerb alongside an extension application
The crossing is authorised by the highway authority under the Highways Act 1980, not by the planning officer. Here is how the two applications interact when you are also building an extension.
What drives the price of off-site biodiversity units
The metric multipliers, not the headline rate, decide the cost of off-site biodiversity net gain. Spatial risk alone can double the number of units required.
Refusal citing cumulative impact of HMOs
Concentration policies are applied mechanically from data that is often out of date or inconsistently defined. Attacking the arithmetic beats arguing the policy is unfair.
Front walls, railings and the one metre highway limit
A front wall or railing adjacent to a road is capped at one metre under Part 2 Class A. Measuring on sloping ground, gates, listed curtilage and the hedge alternative.
Outbuildings used as a home office or gym
A garden room is permitted development only while the use stays incidental. Sleeping, letting and running a business with visitors all take it outside Class E.
Dark sky areas and lighting policy in protected landscapes
National Parks and National Landscapes sit in the darkest obtrusive light zones, where upward light is zero and spill after curfew is zero. What that means for design.
Briefing a daylight consultant: the inputs to supply
A defensible daylight assessment needs a correctly oriented model, survey levels to ordnance datum and an agreed list of affected properties. What to put in the brief.
Energy and carbon conditions: what gets discharged when
Energy and carbon conditions bite at different points in the programme. The triggers, the as-built evidence councils accept, and what to do when design changes break one.
Splitting a site to stay below ten units
Two applications of nine dwellings rarely avoid major development status. How officers identify a single planning unit, and when separate applications are proper.
Walkthrough: a woodland lodge in a National Landscape
An illustrative run through a small tourism lodge inside a National Landscape, where siting, darkness and the ancient woodland buffer decide the application.
Inclusive design statements for London schemes
An inclusive design statement follows the user through the scheme rather than listing standards. Policy D5 and D7, evacuation lifts, wayfinding and the management plan.
CIL relief for a residential extension
The minor development exemption removes CIL from extensions below 100 square metres. Larger extensions and annexes need relief claimed and granted before any work begins.
Appealing a refused demolition prior notification
Under Class A of Part 11 of the GPDO the authority may only consider the method of demolition and site restoration. A refusal on any other ground is the appeal.
Flood risk evidence for a garden room in Flood Zone 2
Most garden rooms are permitted development, so no assessment arises. Where permission is needed in Flood Zone 2, a short proportionate report covering six points is normally enough.
Side infill extensions and the neighbour's window
Infilling a side return builds a wall where the neighbour had sky. The daylight tests, the boundary detailing, the party wall notices and the drawings that get it approved.
Means of access under Part 2 Class B of the GPDO
A dropped kerb onto an unclassified road can be permitted development under Part 2 Class B, but only in support of other permitted work, and never onto a classified road.
Light spill into bedroom windows and the curfew hour
Obtrusive light guidance sets lux limits at the window by environmental zone, with far tighter figures after curfew. How to measure, object and get a condition that works.
Light wells and basement flats: achieving usable daylight
A light well needs a clear width at least equal to its depth before a basement room behaves like an ordinary one. Geometry, drainage, flood risk and the assessment method.
Overheating risk in a loft conversion
Sloping rooflights collect more solar gain than vertical windows, and a converted loft has almost no thermal mass. Part O rarely applies, so the design has to deal with it.
Not sure which documents your council will ask for?
Enter your postcode and PlanScope recommends the right reports for your project, then drafts them in minutes.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope