PlanScope Blog – Page 99
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 99
9468 articlesOpening a fish and chip shop in a parade of shops
A takeaway is sui generis, so permission is always needed. The decision then turns on the flue termination, the odour control train, fan noise at night and the hours offered.
Documents for a place of worship in an industrial unit
Two issues decide these applications: whether losing employment floorspace is acceptable, and whether parking works at peak congregation time. The rest is manageable with a management plan.
Capacity calculations in a utilities assessment
A utilities assessment at planning stage is a feasibility document: demand with stated assumptions, a point of connection evidenced by the undertaker, and the works that follow.
Exceedance routing above the design event
Above the design event, water flows over the surface and someone has to decide where. An exceedance plan shows the route, the low points, the thresholds and what the water reaches.
National Landscapes and the strengthened statutory duty
AONBs became National Landscapes in 2023, and the duty on decision makers was strengthened from having regard to the statutory purpose to seeking to further it. That shifts what evidence has to show.
Class H antennas: size, number and siting limits
Class H of Part 1 allows up to two antennas on a house within stated size limits. Flats have no right at all, designated land restricts highway-facing positions, and listed buildings need consent.
RTPI chartered status: what it means for your agent
Planning is not a protected profession, so anyone may act as your agent. Chartered status brings a code of conduct, insurance and accountability, and matters most where the case turns on policy.
Electric vehicle charging provision by dwelling count
Approved Document S ties charge point provision to parking spaces associated with dwellings, not to the number of homes. Cable routes cover the rest, and electrical capacity is the real constraint.
Outline for an arboricultural method statement
Method statements fail when they describe intentions instead of operations. This outline sets out what a tree officer expects in each section, and what the tree protection plan has to show.
Utility connection costs and when to apply for them
Connection charges sit outside the planning fee structure and only become real when each undertaker quotes on your site. Apply when the planning application goes in, not when the slab is poured.
The Whitley principle and unlawful implementation
Work carried out in breach of a true condition precedent is not carried out under the permission at all. The risk is not enforcement, it is a permission that was never lawfully begun and has since expired.
Sequential approach or the sequential test in retail
One is a named requirement in national policy for main town centre uses outside a centre. The other is a way of thinking used across several policy areas. The evidence they need is not the same.
A community orchard and allotments on a field
Growing on farmland rarely changes the use on its own. Sheds, parking, water tanks and deer fencing do, and they are what a community allotment application has to pin down.
Document bundle for a holiday let change of use
Short-term letting may or may not be a material change of use. Where it is, the bundle runs on a Planning Statement, proof of the existing lawful use and a management plan officers can condition.
Baseline tables in a parking survey
The baseline table decides whether a parking survey is believed. Here is how to set the survey nights, measure usable kerb consistently and present stress street by street.
Evidencing the drainage hierarchy decision
Weak hierarchy justification stops more drainage strategies than bad hydraulics. What proof each step down the hierarchy needs, and the one table reviewers read first.
Green Belt purposes and inset settlements
An inset village sits outside the Green Belt and a washed over one does not, which changes everything about what can be built. How the distinction is made and what follows from it.
Measuring height where the ground slopes
The datum is the highest part of the ground immediately next to the building, so the downhill corner is what breaches the limit. How to measure it and record it.
Fire engineering competence under the Building Safety Act
A fire statement is read by a technical consultee who knows what a competent author would have covered. How to check fire engineering competence, scope the appointment and record the decision.
Accessible and adaptable dwellings: the required proportions
No national proportion of accessible homes exists. The optional Building Regulations standards apply only where a local plan policy and a condition impose them, and the figure varies sharply.
A biodiversity net gain statement outline for a small site
What belongs in the net gain statement at application stage and what waits for the gain plan after permission. Exemptions, the small sites metric route and the baseline that drives everything.
Budgeting the validation pack for a small housing site
The local validation list sets the bill, not the plot count. How to read it before you commission anything, where one document can serve two requirements, and what an invalid submission costs.
Prior approval refusal or a deemed approval
Silence from the council makes the development permitted, not permitted development approved. What that distinction changes for appeals, conditions, lenders and your evidence file.
A helicopter landing area at a private house
Occasional landings often fall within the 28 day temporary use right. Regular use, a built pad or a fuel store put you outside it. What the application has to show and what gets conditioned.
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