PlanScope Blog – Page 88
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 88
9488 articlesClass B roof extensions and the 20 centimetre rule
Class B permits roof enlargement within a cubic content allowance, below the existing ridge, and set back 20 centimetres from the original eaves. Where each limit bites, and where the class does not reach.
Construction vibration limits and how they are evidenced
Residents notice vibration at levels roughly fifty times below those that risk cosmetic damage. The thresholds, the sources, and the monitoring and trigger regime a planning submission should offer.
Whole life carbon thresholds: which schemes are caught
The trigger for a whole life carbon assessment is not floor area. In London it is referability to the Mayor; outside London it is the adopted local plan, or nothing at all.
External wall information at Planning Gateway One
The planning-stage question on external walls is narrower than full compliance: can the building as drawn be built within the restrictions that apply to it. What to state, and how to keep conditions workable.
Sunlight to a communal roof terrace: testing the usable area
On a roof terrace the obstructions are the plant enclosure, the lift overrun and the acoustic screen, not the neighbours. How the sun-on-ground test is applied and how the usable area is defined.
Temporary traffic orders for construction works
A construction programme usually needs four separate highway permissions, each under a different power. What each one covers, how long it lasts and what happens when works overrun.
School expansion on a playing field: the evidence pack
An illustrative walkthrough of a primary school expansion that takes part of a playing field, and how the replacement provision, agronomy evidence and lighting case were assembled.
Solar panels on a front roof slope: the planning rules
Panels on a front roof slope are usually permitted development in England. What decides it is the 0.2 metre protrusion limit, ridge height, listed status and whether an Article 4 direction applies.
Odour assessment methods and the dose response question
Annoyance does not track concentration linearly, which is why odour assessment uses percentile metrics and graded benchmarks. Source characterisation, receptor sensitivity and mitigation.
Solar panels on a listed building: what is possible
Solar on a listed building turns on visibility, fixing detail and reversibility rather than on the panels. The slopes least likely to be refused, and the documents consent needs.
Sequencing site investigation before an application
Ground investigation after the design is fixed tells you what went wrong. The order that works, what the desk study should assemble, and why monitoring sets the submission date.
Reviewing an opponent's daylight report
Four decisions made before any calculation usually explain a daylight conclusion you disagree with. How to check scope, baseline, model extent and test selection, and how to write it up.
Walkthrough: a roof extension adding two flats
An illustrative one storey addition creating two flats on an existing block, from the Part 20 prior approval choice through daylight, structure, lift provision and construction access.
Metropolitan Open Land and its Green Belt equivalence
Metropolitan Open Land imports Green Belt protection through London Plan Policy G3. What that means for exceptions, openness assessment and why grey belt arguments do not transfer.
Resubmitting instead of appealing after a refusal
A revised application fixes detail objections faster than an appeal, but the twelve week householder appeal window keeps running. How to choose, and how to protect both routes.
Heritage evidence for a chapel conversion to flats
Chapels are assessed on plan form, galleries and fittings rather than elevations. What to record, how to handle burials, and how to argue the loss of volume.
Losing a garden tree to build an extension
Root protection areas, Tree Preservation Orders and conservation area notices decide where an extension can go. The lower cost geometric fixes, and the consent route for removal.
Why Part 1 rights do not apply to a flat or maisonette
Article 2 of the GPDO excludes flats and maisonettes from the definition of dwellinghouse, removing every Part 1 right. What still applies, and why the application is not a householder one.
Extract systems for hot food premises: what officers ask
A hot food takeaway is sui generis, so the extract system is argued in full at application stage. Discharge height, abatement staging, fan noise and the maintenance plan officers condition.
Embodied carbon in a retrofit against a new build
A retrofit against new build carbon comparison turns on four module groups, the structural appraisal behind the reuse case, and the grid decarbonisation assumption nobody states.
Geotechnical assessment and Eurocode 7 in planning
Planning needs feasibility and risk, not a finished foundation design. How Eurocode 7 and BS 5930 shape the investigation, and how to split the deliverables between planning and construction.
What to submit with a daylight and sunlight assessment
Most daylight assessments are queried on their deliverables rather than their conclusions. The numbering plan, table conventions, model extents and assumptions a reviewer needs.
Bathing and shellfish waters as a planning constraint
Bathing water and shellfish water designations bite on drainage rather than land use. How to find them, what the Environment Agency and your undertaker will say, and the conditions to expect.
Walkthrough: a farm diversification wedding venue
An illustrative walkthrough of a change of use to a wedding and events venue on a working farm, from the use class question through noise, lane access, parking and foul drainage to the conditions.
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