Design and Access Planning Statement

[Ed_MK]

Well I almost have everything ready to submit my planning App

The only thing remaining is the "Planning and Access Statement"

 

I  must admit after poking about online, I can find references to large commercial developments,

and a few very small things for examples (like extensions and garages)

 

I am building 1 house, and it is in Buckinghamshire (MK to be exact) and I am wondering does anyone have an "example" on what one should contain

to satisfy the council?

 

Most bewildering for me is that many seem to be referring legally to this and that Act or another ...sounds like the they were wrote by 

Juncker and his pals in brussels

 

HELP

Edited September 14, 2017 by Ed_MK

[Ferdinand]

I don't believe that a Design and Access - now usually called a Planning Statement - is compulsory in law, though Councils may customarily expect one.

 

It is where you:

 

a - Explain your vision, what you are trying to do, and any other things to give the Planning Officer a nice warm feeling.

b - Explain how your proposal complies with all the local and national polices in force this month, and is justified in Planning Terms.

c - Disarm in advance all the reasons which might lead the Planning Department to say no. 

 

There may be something on the Planning Aid website:http://www.rtpi.org.uk/planning-aid/

 

If your proposal is contentious, then it is probably the most important document of all, and in those circumstances where a Planning Consultant (if you had one) would spend most of their time.

 

To find some, I suggest reading the relevant posts of all the build blogs on here, and finding where they all link to their Planning Applications - then go there to find the relevant documents to see what they said. There are quite good blog-only search options in the search box. There may be some further ones on EBuild that have not come across.

 

If you are concerned it may be worth looking at something like The Self-Build Bible by Mark Brinkley to see if there is anything in there. There should be.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

Edited September 14, 2017 by Ferdinand

[vivienz]

Are these put into the public domain with all the other documents that you can find on a council's planning section website?  If so, you may be able to check out statements for individual properties that have been passed in your area.

 

I should be getting a look at the statement our architect has drawn up for our submission this week - PM me your email address and I'll send you a copy once I have it.  It's a different council, North Dorset, but I daresay that the outline of it will be similar. 

[jack]

@Ed_MK, PM me your email address and I'll send you ours. 

 

Also agree with looking on the planning portal for your council - the D&A statement is published with all the other documents.

 

@Ferdinand is right that they're no longer compulsory, but it usually makes sense to submit one, especially if there's anything at all unusual or challenging in what you're trying to do.

[Ed_MK]

I can see lots of files for Planning Applications, the problem with the area I am in is that there is virtually NO parcels of land left.

WE only got this strip as it was passed on from my wifes family as it was a small "paddock" ...a garden extension really.

 

what this means is that almost (if not all) developments in this vicinity appear to be humongous 200/400 house developers plans,

commercial and industrial ...and the odd extension, extra garage etc ....For the life of me I cannot find a SINGLE dwelling application that 
includes a D&A/P Statement anywhere! One I did find was DEEP into  conservation/Archaelogical are and it was chock-full of stuff to do with
Preservation, Digs and stuff ...The only thing Time Team would find on my land is some rusty mole traps and the odd ancient rubber dog toy

[MikeSharp01]

2 hours ago, Ed_MK said:

ancient rubber dog toy

In your access statement language is everything so if you use the word 'Ancient' you are likely to trigger every archaeological planning requirement in the hemisphere. PS did the Romans have access to rubber I wonder?

[Temp]

3 hours ago, Ed_MK said:

WE only got this strip as it was passed on from my wifes family as it was a small "paddock" ...a garden extension really.

 

Hope you haven't told the planners it was a paddock. In planning terms there is a world of difference between a paddock and a garden.

 

A paddock is agricultural land. A garden is residential land. If it's a paddock/agricultural land then your planning application needs to include "change of use" and might be a lot harder to obtain. If it's clearly part of the garden of an existing house then you don't need to apply for change of use and it might be a lot easier.

 

 

[Temp]

Here is our Design and Access Statement. Its the reduced resolution version off the planners website because the original is a rather large file.

Design_and_Access.pdf

[Temp]

Note: My D&A was written 10 years ago and things have changed a bit since. These days they like developments to be "sustainable" but I'm not talking about it being green. The council consider it sustainable if there are already the public services in place to support the extra people that will live in the house so they don't have to provide new ones.

 

So if favourable to your case you can describe in the D&A the availability of local services such as school places, shops, doctors and dentists, playgrounds and how you could get to them (ideally using existing public transport).  If you have to drive either don't mention that or point out that you have provided car parking spaces and that the routes aren't congested. Beware that if the local school is at capacity the planners might want a Section 106 contribution towards the cost of providing additional classroom capacity (even if you have no children). 

 

 

[Temp]

Guide on what to include in a D&A from Devon..

http://www.devon.gov.uk/design-and-access-statement.pdf

[Jeremy Harris]

I'm another one of the view that the D&A Statement is probably one of the most useful documents you can provide with a planning application.  Many people seem to have a problem visualising things from plans, for example, so a D&A gives the opportunity to include details that might not be that clear otherwise.  There's a copy of ours, together with all our other planning application drawings etc, here, if it's of any help: http://unidoc.wiltshire.gov.uk/UniDoc/Document/Search/DSA,500894

 

The D&A is listed there as the last pdf file in the "plans" section, for some reason.

[Ferdinand]

Here is the MK Council guidance on the subject in case you have not found it.

 

https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/assets/attach/5039/design_and_access_statements1.pdf

[ryder72]

 

@Ed_MK - Others on this site are far more knowedgable than I on the subject so you will no doubt get great advice. However, I can speak with some experience after having received planning permission in a very difficult village not far from and in a borough adjacent to MK. This was for an ultra contemporary dwelling in a hamlet where half the houses are listed or in a conservation area and the potential for every resident to raise objections was very high.

 

I believe that a very well written D&A statement not only help make the case for planning to be granted, but also made it an absolute breeze. On the basis of this experience, I would urge you to seriously consider spending money on a professional to make a reasoned case. In the event that your application gets refused, the refusal becomes part of the planning history. 

 

Since you are in MK, if you want contact details for a very reasonably priced architect, PM me.

[Ed_MK]

On 9/14/2017 at 13:18, JSHarris said:

I'm another one of the view that the D&A Statement is probably one of the most useful documents you can provide with a planning application.  Many people seem to have a problem visualising things from plans, for example, so a D&A gives the opportunity to include details that might not be that clear otherwise.  There's a copy of ours, together with all our other planning application drawings etc, here, if it's of any help: http://unidoc.wiltshire.gov.uk/UniDoc/Document/Search/DSA,500894

 

The D&A is listed there as the last pdf file in the "plans" section, for some reason.

 

Those documents were VERY informative, and to be honest (from others I have read online) are very clear and detailed.

Its no wonder they gave it to you !

 

 

[Ed_MK]

On 9/14/2017 at 10:18, MikeSharp01 said:

In your access statement language is everything so if you use the word 'Ancient' you are likely to trigger every archaeological planning requirement in the hemisphere. PS did the Romans have access to rubber I wonder?

 

I bet Caligula did ...the swine!

[Jeremy Harris]

15 minutes ago, Ed_MK said:

 

Those documents were VERY informative, and to be honest (from others I have read online) are very clear and detailed.

Its no wonder they gave it to you !

 

 

 

Thanks, although to be fair, the site did have a very chequered planning history and the original owner had managed to upset everyone in the village, including the Parish Council, so we knew we were likely to have an uphill struggle to get planning for what we wanted to do.  The Parish Council meeting where our application was heard was daunting.  I'd made a scale model, to try and help them see what we were proposing, then I ended up having a hernia op on the Saturday morning, before attending the PC meeting on the Monday evening (I was struggling a bit!).  The scale model of the site was the thing that swung it, as one PC councillor saw it, liked it, and pretty much forced all the others to agree to it.  This was after the chairman had read out all the previous planning applications and objections, including the 14 points of objection the PC had raised for the previous application for the site..............

[Ferdinand]

On 15/09/2017 at 20:19, Ed_MK said:

 

Those documents were VERY informative, and to be honest (from others I have read online) are very clear and detailed.

Its no wonder they gave it to you !

 

 

 

I have just read Jeremy's Densign and Access for the first time, and it is interesting to see how that evolved over time e.g. Away from SiPS.

 

I do like the phrase "it is the view of the applicant that" rather than the more common "it is considered that", as if the opinion had emerged fully formed from the summit of Mount Olympus.  I can see that the latter can be more useful sometimes.

 

Ferdinand

Edited September 17, 2017 by Ferdinand

[Temp]

 

On ‎9‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 20:26, Ed_MK said:

I bet Caligula did ...the swine!

 

Don't mention the war! I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it, all right.

[Jeremy Harris]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

I have just read Jeremy's Densign and Access for the first time, and it is interesting to see how that evolved over time e.g. Away from SiPS.

 

I do like the phrase "it is the view of the applicant that" rather than the more common "it is considered that", as if the opinion had emerged fully formed from the summit of Mount Olympus.  I can see that the latter can be more useful sometimes.

 

Ferdinand

 

Things changed a fair bit, not just the shift away from SIPs, which was driven very much by the unresponsive attitude of the local builder we were original dealing with, but also the shift away from a GSHP, on the basis that it just didn't make any sense for the low heating requirement.  Luckily the planners considered that swapping it for an ASHP was a Non-Material Amendment.

 

The language used was a deliberate attempt to try and not seem too cocky; I thought that using that phrase seemed a more humble approach.

 

Interesting to re-read that D&A and see that I only expected to get a SAP EPC of A96.  When completed and assessed it actually got a SAP EPC of A107, so we managed to improve things a fair bit by changing a few details.

[Ed_MK]

Lot of Great Advice and examples ..Thanks !..I should get it all in before the end of the week.

I have noticed that on some D&A Statements ...the writers ..(and I am presuming architects here?)

seem to have a LOT of references to one Planning Act or another

 

Town and Coutry this, sustainable housing that, Guidance for Conservation plan, such and the like
...Subclause 5, line 6, amendment so and so (i think you get the picture)

 

So as i REALLY don't know any of these documents ..but of course i could read them all (and still be none the wiser)
IS there a need, or indeed a requirement for a lot of this "legalese"?

 

Would it make the app look better? ..more professional?

 

Edited September 18, 2017 by Ed_MK

[Jeremy Harris]

I think that often planning consultants like to remind planners that they know all the relevant policies and just do this to try and emphasise that there are no real grounds for refusal within the laws and policies that apply.  I didn't really see a need to do this, as I felt it was a bit like telling the planning officer that he/she didn't know their job, or understand the laws and policies that govern their decision making.

 

Believe it or not, the planning system is supposed, in law, to operate on the principle that NO application for development shall be refused permission UNLESS it contravenes a planning law or policy.  

 

It never seems to work like this, and in my view the reverse seems true very often, that there is a presumption against development unless the applicant can find a loophole in the planning policies and guidance to allow it.  Quite how we have allowed the system to get into this mess is beyond me, but it has now created entrenched attitudes on both sides; applicants assume that an application will be refused unless they fight hard to get it through, planners seem to assume that they will often be able to find a way to legitimately refuse an application if they, or more often consultees, like conservation officers and their ilk, just don't like the look of it.

[jack]

I emailed my D&A statement to Ed. Our architect wrote ours, and it's a lot like a planning consultant would have written.

 

This was for two reasons.

 

First, our house is very contemporary in design, and our local council is deeply conservative (in more or less all definitions of the word). We wanted to telegraph to the planners that we understood the framework within which the planning system works, and that we had considered each and every relevant rule that applied in the circumstances.

 

Second, our local plan was in the process of being rewritten to bring it into line with the new national planning policy framework. Until the local plan was approved, the national framework needed to be applied. The framework is a lot more pro development than either the old local plan or the new one that was in the process of being drafted (aside, that local plan was eventually rejected and our local council is only now, years later, about to submit a new local plan for approval). While I'm sure the planners knew that they should be applying the national framework in the circumstances, we again wanted to make it clear that they knew that we understood the situation.

 

It may have helped that our architect is local (lives a couple of blocks from us) and has a history of success with very contemporary designs in the area. It's possible the planners had become a little tired of losing to him at appeal!

 

It's all a load of gamemanship and there are many ways to play the game. Start with something bigger than what you want, and trim down to make it look like you're giving something up, or start small and make amendments to enlarge towards what you really wanted. Submit a highly professional, polished job making it clear that you know what you're talking about and are willing to fight, or submit something drawn with crayons and play the naive, honest homeowner.  

 

So much fun, I almost regret that we got permission first time around! 

[Ed_MK]

On 9/18/2017 at 09:18, jack said:

 

So much fun, I almost regret that we got permission first time around! 

<gulp>

 

I am close to terrified ! ...you must have nerves of steel !!!

Well I am still struggling with my D&A / Planning Statement ..I did get examples from here ,,which HELPED.
But I am still thinking that there MAY be stuff that they would be EXPECTING that I would miss ...or that I would not 

FORMAT it correctly.

 

Sorry to be a forum pest ...Its just i keep reading how this document ALONE could well SWING it one way or another ..

 

I still of course have my Pre-App advice letter, and I am presuming this would be the best guide for what they are looking for. So I have attached it,

in hope someone could give me a steer or some examples or guidance ..or anything!

 

I am sorry ..but I had to redact some of the personal info (as its in the public domain) ..but of course as I have spoken to a lot of regular good guys on here ..I have no issue with 

letting you know anything via PM

 

PS

I have also included my visibility Splay and Parking/Turning Plan. The road I am accessing has no footpath as you can see, Pavement and lay-bys are all on the OPPOSITE side (sadly). It is a VERY long access across their verge ...23 ft if i recall, most of this being grass. but i KNOW they don't want to hear about vehicles "backing out" regardless of view ..even though the road is VERY quiet and 30mph

 

You can see by the Pre-App, for some reason this has caused them to FOCUS on this aspect of the plan ....And I am looking about the best way to mitigate.
I have already had the house footprint "narrowed" to fit on the land ..and as you can see "shunting" it further back is not really possible ..its not a big house, but i don't want it to be narrow like a submarine..as i cant even watch Das Boot ...without feeling panicky !

 

 

Pre-Planning_Advice_Done.pdf

Visibility_and_Parking Model_Forum_Example.pdf

[ToughButterCup]

45 minutes ago, Ed_MK said:

[...]

You can see by the Pre-App, for some reason this has caused them to FOCUS on this aspect of the plan ....And I am looking about the best way to mitigate.
I have already had the house footprint "narrowed" to fit on the land 

[...]

 

Mitigation: Look for online examples of the same problem being successfully resolved in your LPA. One thing of which you can be almost certain: you aren't the first person to be faced with this issue. Read carefully and look at how the discussion between planner and developer evolved. My LPA allows you to do that (because Wyre is fairly fastidious in including all documentation), but it's a Hell of a slog. Proper document naming conventions, orderly file hierarchies are rare. Very few people have the skills or experience to do this important job properly.

 

You have a tremendous amount of reading to do, and none of it will be wasted even if you don't find examples of what you need to focus on. 

[Ed_MK]

Thanks, I will .

 

did you send me a link to yours RA?

Sorry I am useless at finding stuff in messages etc 

Edited September 20, 2017 by Ed_MK