Making sense of the various permitted development rights for change of use under Part 3, Schedule 2 of the GPDO is a long way from easy. In particular, many have drawn the conclusion that a local planning authority which fails to determine a prior approval application within the requisite period has granted permission by default. Not so, as we highlighted in No worries.
Monthly Archives: July 2019
One giant leap
As we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing it appears that planning has made one giant leap backwards. Get this: in Hertfordshire an appeal has been allowed and approval granted for change of use from light industrial to windowless flats under the provisions of Schedule 2, Part 3, Class PA of the GPDO (DCS Number 400-022-545).
The hands of time
If William Morris were still here he might be interested to know that, whilst many of his ideas were considered revolutionary in his lifetime, some have since been absorbed into mainstream planning policy. In particular, he did not share his fellow Victorians’ enthusiasm for turning back the hands of time in relation to the preservation of ancient buildings, and an appeal decision against the refusal of listed building consent for internal alterations to a thatched cottage in Wiltshire (DCS Number 400-022-320) is in line with his philosophy.
Celebrity gossip
Readers who move in certain circles might already be aware that, after his problems with a proposed private chapel on his Suffolk estate, Ed Sheeran does at least now have his wildlife pond sorted out.
Truncated
An inspector has authorised shorter visibility splays than deemed necessary by the council at the access to six dwellings in Suffolk, finding no particular justification for insisting on visibility splays suitable for a trunk road (DCS Number 400-022-073).
News from PlanningResource
- ‘Number of holiday-let homes has soared by 40 per cent’ July 1, 2022A report by the BBC, detailing where spikes in holiday rental numbers are highest, leads our round-up of today’s newspaper stories
- Inspectors pause local plan hearings to ‘consider’ neighbouring authority’s unmet housing need July 1, 2022Planning inspectors have postponed the remaining public hearings assessing the viability of an authority’s local plan in order to “allow more time for the consideration of information relating to Leicester’s unmet housing need”.
- Residents in North Norfolk village use neighbourhood plan to stem rise in second home ownership July 1, 2022Residents in the parish of Heacham in North Norfolk have included a clause to their neighbourhood plan requiring all new housing to be sold as principal residences, to stem an increase in second and holiday home ownership.
- Independent review finds capacity of employment sites to absorb extra Black Country homes is 'not significant' July 1, 2022An independent review of the emerging strategic plan for the Black Country has identified additional brownfield land for development, but not “of a significant scale” to close out the subregion’s housing shortfall.
- Local Plan Watch: Council adopts plan after nine years of preparation, despite housing shortfall June 30, 2022A council has adopted a local plan after a nine-year preparation process, despite identifying a 500-home shortfall in its planned housing supply.
- 10 key things that happened this week June 30, 2022Ten of the biggest stories from the past week, including a council taking enforcement action against one of the UK's biggest housebuilders and the local authorities with the highest and lowest approval rates.
- How measures in the levelling up bill to force developers to complete schemes more quickly are likely to play out June 30, 2022The levelling up bill includes proposals requiring developers to tell councils when they are starting work on a permitted scheme and making it easier for authorities to force applicants to complete unfinished buildings. However, observers say the measures are unlikely to have any significant impact on build-out rates.
- ‘Census results suggest some green belt building might have been unnecessary’ June 30, 2022A national newspaper report claiming that the census results indicate that some green belt land might have been “unnecessarily” allocated for development due to over-estimated population figures in some areas leads our roundup of today’s news.
- Clarkson acting like ‘a classic bully’, says council planning officers’ chairman June 30, 2022TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been acting like “a classic bully” in picking on local authority planning officers, says the chairman of the body that represents them.
- The councils that determined the fewest applications within government time limits in 2020/21 and 2021/22 June 30, 2022Eighteen authorities are sitting below the government’s ‘special measures’ threshold for speed of decision making on applications in the two years to March 2022, two more than in the previous quarter.