PlanScope Blog – Page 96
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 96
9474 articlesPedestrian intervisibility splays at a private driveway
The pedestrian splay at the back of the footway is a separate test from vehicular visibility, and it sits in your front garden. Dimensions, wall heights, gates and the drawing that answers it.
Historic England pre-application advice: when to buy it
Paid heritage advice earns its fee where Historic England will be a statutory consultee and the design still has options. How to frame the questions and use the reply.
Piling risk assessments and when a council requires one
Piling can drive a pathway through the layer protecting an aquifer, which is why permissions carry a piling condition. The mechanism, the method hierarchy and how to discharge it on time.
Reporting daylight shortfalls honestly in a submission
BRE 209 targets are advisory and officers approve schemes that miss them. What loses a scheme is a shortfall found late by an objector. How to report one so it can be weighed.
Changing to a more vulnerable use in a flood zone
Flood risk policy classifies uses by vulnerability, and a conversion to residential moves a building up a class. What applies in Zones 2, 3a and 3b, and how prior approval routes are affected.
Viability assessments: who may prepare and who reviews
Planning viability is valuation work, not spreadsheet work. The competence the authority expects, the benchmark land value questions a reviewer asks, and how to prepare for publication.
Priority habitat inventory checks and what they trigger
The priority habitat inventory maps habitats of principal importance under section 41 of the NERC Act 2006. How to check it, ground truth it, and plan around the survey seasons.
Forward visibility on a bend for a new access
A perfect junction splay will not save an access if a driver coming round the bend cannot see it. How forward visibility is measured, the obstruction and ownership traps, and why relocating often wins.
What evidence a council needs for an Article 4 direction
Article 4 directions must rest on located evidence of harm and cover the smallest area possible. The justification national policy expects, the procedure, the compensation trap and the routes to challenge.
Geotechnical assessment at planning application stage
At application stage the authority wants feasibility and risk, not foundation design. The desk study sources, the investigation phasing that keeps cost down, and the conditions to expect.
Sunlight to allotments, playgrounds and open space
BRE 209 suggests at least half an amenity area should get two hours of sun on 21 March. What that means for parks, allotments and play space, and how to check a submitted study.
Downpipe disconnection and retrofit rain planters at home
Disconnecting one downpipe into a planter or rain garden keeps roof water on the plot. The sizing method, the overflow detail most people skip, and where consent is still needed.
Archaeological competence and who holds the standard
Councils test both the practice and the individual directing archaeological fieldwork. What registration covers, what the written scheme must contain, and where the programme risk sits.
Smoke control areas, wood burners and flue permissions
Smoke control areas under the Clean Air Act 1993 restrict what you can burn and in what. How to check your address, meet the appliance and fuel rules, and work out whether the flue needs permission.
Deriving visibility splays from recorded vehicle speeds
Highway authorities derive sight distance from the speeds vehicles actually travel at. How to commission a defensible speed survey, set the splay out correctly, and deal with land you do not control.
Treasure Act duties when a find appears on a building site
The duty to report treasure sits with the finder and runs whether or not the site has an archaeological condition. What qualifies, the 14 day deadline, ownership and reward, and the site documents that prevent disputes.
Retain or demolish: the evidence authorities now expect
Authorities increasingly test whether an existing building could be retained before accepting demolition. The structural investigation, the height and floorplate limits, and the options appraisal that persuades.
Modelling the existing context in a daylight assessment
Most daylight disputes are arguments about the baseline model rather than the calculation. A reviewer's guide to survey sources, assumed room layouts, consented schemes and auditing someone else's geometry.
Paving a front garden: the drainage rules that apply
Hard surfacing a front garden is permitted development only if it is porous or drains inside your boundary once it exceeds five square metres. The detail, plus dropped kerbs and conservation area traps.
Transport planner competence and agreeing the scope first
Settle the scope of a transport assessment in writing before commissioning surveys. This covers professional competence, trip rate justification, junction model audits and where transport fees overrun.
Safeguarded transport routes and what you can still build
A safeguarded transport route gives the scheme promoter a consultation veto over anything that would prejudice future works. Here is how the direction operates, what still gets permission, and when a blight notice is available.
One and two dimensional modelling: which is needed
Many site assessments need no new hydraulic model at all. Here is when one dimension is enough, when spreading demands two, and how to scope it with the regulator.
Who may hold a European protected species licence
A mitigation licence names the ecologist whose competence Natural England has accepted for that species. Survey licences and mitigation licences are not the same thing.
Metropolitan Open Land and how it differs
Metropolitan Open Land applies Green Belt style tests to strategic open space inside London's built-up area, with designation criteria that are distinctly urban.
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