Duration of Planning Permission (Scotland)
Time limits on existing planning permissions - General Rule 3 years Section 58(1) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, as amended 1st October 2022, provides that grant…
Geoserver WFS Creator 2.0.0 Tool
Its possible to limit the number of layers that are brought back from a capabilities request to a Geoserver. I have not been able to limit to an individual layer…
Residential Annexes and Ancillary Accommodation – Permitted development
The Peak District published a comprehensive policy document on the complexity of determining what is ancillary and what is not. Link below Peak District - Residential Annexes - Supplementary Planning…
Protected: Postgres 4 Planners: Dump and Restore Tool
Single Database (using command line tools & custom format *.dump) MY PREFERRED METHOD (Databases or Tables- here from Windows client) Overview (click to go straight to STEP) STEP 1 : Preparation…
Curtilage – a definition
One of the most common planning applications councils receive is for development within the grounds of a property. In order to be considered as a householder planning application those structures…
Overview Planning Application Preparation Flow Chart (Local/Major) – UK / Scotland
Prior to even submitting a planning application a significant amount of information needs to be collected. Time and money needs to be budgeted for this process. I have attempted to…
Map of National Developments Scotland NPPF4
The NPPF4 contains two maps identifying the National developments in Scotland - I talk a bit about hierarchy of development link here and how these developments fit into development within…
Building Control (Scotland) – Link with further reading
This blog focuses on Town Planning but anyone actually wanting to complete a development of any kind must take into consideration Building Warrants in the development process In parallel to…
News Jan 2025 : Environmental assessment system to be replaced amid development drive (England and Wales)
"Developers have to consult too many organisations on too wide a range of issue, the Treasury said." Quote from the Independent on Sunday 26 January 2025 full article link below;…
News Jan 2025 Scot Government – New Housing Land Audit Guidance
The Scottish Government has published revised guidance on Housing Land Audit Preparation 20th January 2025 This is worth reading if you are involved in planning in Scotland either in a…
National /Major / Local Definition – Hierarchy of Development
The process by which a development gets planning permission is influenced by its class of development - National, Major or Local. That classification is defined through legislation. The Town and…
Scottish Govt – Development Types .. Planning Performance Data
The Scottish Government requests that all planning authorities within their jurisdiction classify applications according to a particular development type which they defined in correspondence to Local authorities. Planning Performance Statistics…
OpenStreetMap : Participation is easy
I have been a contributor to the Open Street Map dataset on a very minor level for about 8 years now and I would recomend it to anyone doing research…
Overpass Turbo : Churches and Cathedrals
If you haven't used it before Overpass Turbo is a website that allows the user to interrogate the global OpenStreetMap database. This is excellent for identifying at scale building types…
Overpass Turbo : Schools
Following on the theme of using Openstreet map to identify spatial context of building here's the syntax to identify schools within a bounding box defined as your selected field of…
Town Planning and Refuse Disposal
In our development and with regard to planning I know that City of Edinburgh carefully consider refuse disposal in housing site design. Waste disposal areas are easily accessible to residents…
Town Planning and Pedestrian Access
Internationally recognized examples of good practice in urban design and pedestrian access. Here are some notable examples : (Researched using ChatGPT) 1. Copenhagen, Denmark Focus on Active Transportation: Copenhagen is…
Legislation – Planning App Fees Updated 09 June 2025 – Will also update on the 1st April 2026
Planning Application Fee Calculator - NEW FEE Rates ALL Scotland 01 April 2026 link The Scottish Government has set out an inflation-linked increase to planning fees which will come into force on Wednesday…
Legislation – Notes on Caravans and definition of Caravans
Legislation in Scotland is The Caravan Sites Act 1968 [1968 c. 52] The Caravan Sites Act 1968 (Amendment of Definition of Caravan) (Scotland) Order 2019 [2019 No. 295] Mobile Homes…
Planning Circular 3/2012 : Planning obligations and good neighbour agreements (revised 2020)
Planning Circular 3/2012 - Planning obligations and good neighbour agreements Planning obligations made under section 75 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended) should only be…
Legislation – Permitted Development OVERVIEW
Users should carefully review any links to legislation when investigating specific points of interest as legislation may or may not be consolidated and release of new legislation tends to be…
MapLibre / Leaflet / OpenLayers – a quick overview
So I've been investigating client side open source Javascript mapping libraries and I've had a chance to investigate three. I've been working with them and chatGPT to build basic applications…
Legislation – SEARCH – Unique Index Identifier
Just to be aware going forward I am trying to reference legislation with their Year and Number - as shorter and more distinctive than their often long and repetitive textual…
Tunnelling a quick investigation of Practicality.
Advantages are very significant. And given limited land it would appear that cost aside nearly every new project would be a tunnel. These include but are not limited to; Environmentally…
Appeal Process : Local Review Body and Procedure
Relevant to some householders applications & some full planning applications Only applies when a planning application has been decided through delegated powers (householder / planning application ) and the applicant is unhappy with the decision they…
Permitted Development and Electric Car Charging Points
Here I have collected some of the legislative guidance on what is permitted in terms of Electric Car Charging points for domestic properties / I also include a link to…
Notes on BRE Guidelines on Daylight and Sunlight 2022
BRE – Building Research Establishment The new BRE guidelines for Daylight & Sunlight 2022 have been amended to incorporate updates from the British Standard for Daylighting in Buildings (BS EN17037) issued in June…
Selected Local Development Plan – Links
Links to Scottish Planning Authority Local Plan information City of Edinburgh Local Development Plan 2030 (Adopted November 2024) (Direct Link to ARCGIS online map) City of Glasgow Development Plan (adopted…
Methodology Compound Interest Calculation (Updated October 2023)
Most legal agreements relating to land deals and developer contributions contain a paragraph that allows for the return of moneys if money collected by an authority has not been spent…