23 September 2022

How are planning decisions made?

Planning decisions are made for various reasons, but the main one is to protect the character and amenity of an area.

It will give you insights on what to consider when considering putting a project in place in your home.

The role of planning policies

When a local authority is considering making a planning decision, it must consider its overall duty to protect the area’s amenities. This means that they must ensure that any new development will not harm existing residents or businesses and that it will be well designed and located in an appropriate place. They also have duties to protect the environment in general (including wildlife), promote sustainable development, and promote economic development.

In addition, they must not discriminate against anyone and ensure that any new development will not disadvantage any group of people. They also have to consider the needs of those most vulnerable in society, such as the elderly and disabled.

Local development plans or local plans are policies gathered from historical policies but also neighbourhood-specific plans such as town and parish policies. These policies include what can and cannot be done in a specific area.

What is in Planning Policy

A policy can be general and apply to general areas.
A policy can be general and apply to standards for building design.
A policy can relate to specific areas such as conservation areas, or it may categorise settlement into residential and non-residential areas. It could detail concerns of certain types of development such as house extensions or roof extensions. Finally, it could show how a particular site should be developed or site allocation for new houses.

how the historical planning decisions of an area can affect future planning permissions.

In areas where the planning policies of the area have a history of rejecting new buildings, developers may be more reluctant to submit applications for new developments. If you are trying to put a planning application for a mansard roof extension and you’ve noticed that other planning applications were rejected in neighbouring streets, then it will be highly likely that your application will be rejected.

Previous properties’ size and dimensions can also affect future applications’ limits. If the property only allows 8m extensions and you’re doing 9m then you’ll not get the planning permit approved.

Physical site constraints that influence the planning permission

The size and shape of the site
Landscape features, such as a river, railway line or motorway.
Current ground conditions, including the position of existing drains, sewers and water mains.
Services available to the property such as power, gas and telephone lines (and whether these are overhead or underground).
Tree and vegetation restrictions – for example, if you have a tree preservation order on your property, then tree felling will not be possible (or only allowed with special permission from your local council).
Wildlife protection – for example, some endangered animals might be using your land, and that would restrict your use or development of it on your land.

in the next few sections, we’ll cover each one of them in a bit more detail.

Size and shape of the site

Site size and shape. The site’s size and shape can have a major impact on the design of your house. For example, you may want to orient your house with a view or to capture sunlight. But if the windows/doors are affecting the privacy of others, the planning permission would likely be denied or would have a restriction.

In addition, the land’s topography—its slope and distance from water sources—can affect drainage issues during storms, which could trigger problems like flooding or erosion on your property. You might have conditions placed where you’ll need to ensure correct foundations are set or precautions made to the development of the property to avoid future subsidence or affecting neighbouring properties.

The topography of the land

As you can see, many factors influence the decision about where to build a home. In order to make an informed choice, you need to know what kind of topography your land has and how it will affect the design and construction of your new house.

The following are some things that you should consider when assessing your land’s topography:

The height of the land.
The shape of the land.
The steepness of the land.
Slope.
Highways and roads near your property.
Ponds or water bodies near your property.
Water run-off from nearby hills or mountains into streams or rivers near your property.
Flooding issues in specific seasons like springtime when snow melts after winter months

The current ground conditions

It’s important to understand that the ground conditions can greatly impact planning decisions. The ground conditions can be difficult to predict and expensive to change if you don’t get it right in the first place.

The planning officer will need as much information on your site as possible to make an informed decision about whether or not planning permission should be granted.

Archaeological remains

Archaeological remains are the physical remains of human activity in the past. They include:

Built structures (such as houses, temples and tombs), and their foundations;
Burial sites or cemeteries;
Tools and other cultural items (such as pottery).

The significance of archaeological remains varies according to their age, location and context. In some cases, they can provide direct evidence for events from years ago, such as how people lived at a particular time.

Having properties in close proximity or already in a zone of archaeological interest may restrict your works or deny it completely. Extensive research may be needed to disprove this.

Changes on existing buildings

If you are considering making any changes to an existing building, the planning decision-makers will want to see evidence that the existing building has been kept in good condition and has been maintained. If your application involves demolishing a part of an existing building, keep it as much as possible. If you live in a conservation area and have a listed property, you should consider retaining as much of the original fabric as possible.

The impact on boundaries

You’ll need to consider the impact of your proposals on boundaries. This is likely to include neighbouring properties but can also include:

Local authorities
Neighbours
Other public bodies such as highways authority, environmental health and so on.

The services available to the property

If services are available to your property, you’ll need to be sure that they meet your needs. For example, if you have a water supply and drainage but not a sewer system built into the property, then you will need to arrange for one installation (which could cost thousands).

This may be approved with restrictions or conditions to have specific services installed for future use.

Tree and vegetation restrictions on planning permission

Planning permission is only granted if the proposed development is not likely to have a significant adverse impact on matters of national environmental importance (MINEIs). These are things like air quality, flood risk management, water resources, landscape character and biodiversity. There is no list of MINEIs in the Planning Act; they are defined by law whenever they arise in relation to a specific proposal by reference to ‘well-established principles’ set out under section 58 of that Act.

One such principle relates specifically to trees – that any damage or destruction must not be permitted unless an exception has been made under section 59(4). This means that tree preservation orders (TPOs) can be used as part of development plans for particular areas or sites where there are concerns about existing trees being damaged or destroyed during construction works such as building new buildings or roads etc. A TPO will also provide protection against harm caused by activities such as felling trees from other properties which could affect neighbouring properties.

The proximity of the wildlife and how it can affect planning permission

In addition to the proximity of wildlife, it’s important to consider the impact the wildlife can have on planning permission. You should know that any planning applications may be refused if they conflict with an existing policy or development plan.

If you’re looking to buy a property in an area with a large population of badgers and their setts (burrows), it’s worth noting that there may be restrictions on what you can do with your land or even whether you’ll be allowed to build at all. This will also affect how much your property is worth.

If you want to give yourself some peace of mind when buying a property near badger habitats and/or woodlands, you should make sure that:

The local authority has adopted an appropriate management strategy for dealing with these issues
They have taken into account the views and interests of everyone involved in managing these areas (community groups, landowners etc.)
The information about these sites has been shared widely so people know what might happen during construction works etc., which could lead them to make informed decisions about where best for them to relocate – often for financial reasons!

The provision of the car park

If you’re building for new builds, then there will be some restrictions on car park provision.

The answer to this question depends on several factors. The following details should help you to decide:

The size of your car park should match the requirements for the proposed development. If it’s too big, it will be underused, and if it’s too small, then people won’t be able to park their cars safely or legally.
Whether there are additional requirements such as electric charging points and CCTV cameras will depend on who is using them (for example, private users vs employees), where they are located within an office block, etcetera; however, some basic guidelines include installing enough power sockets so that no one needs extension cables when charging their vehicle(s) overnight – this could mean having enough charging points for every floor plus some extra ones spread across each level.

Surrounding Area

The local authority is responsible for the planning of the area. The local authority has a duty to consult with the community before making a planning decision.

This applies to permits within the review of the town or parish council.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to remember that planning decisions are made by local councils. The process of making these decisions can be complex and time-consuming. Therefore we encourage you to contact us at any stage of the planning process so we can help guide and advise you through it.