Where to find sources for supporting evidence for a design and access statement?

[Jane W]

In 2022 a planner posted a design and access statement he wrote for his own plot. It was a fantastic resource for the build hub community and I would like to use the approach he suggests for getting together some evidence for my own plot after a pretty damning pre-app.

The upside is that I'm aware of the many issues the planner had at the time of her report, so I can try to address them, with evidence.

There was alot of data presented in photos, diagrams and tables and I wondered if anyone knows how this information can be obtained or researched by a lay person. There were street/neighbourhood plans like the one below which enabled drawing over,  and information presented in tables; that information relevant to my plot would be very useful. Does anyone know where I can find plot size, footprint,  floorspace, garden size, even better if they are all in one place? Thanks

 

[Alan Ambrose]

You might have to do a bit of leg work. Either existing planning applications and take the data off the block plans. Or, maybe better, a custom mapping extract of the area you want and do the same. Estimate floor area by counting floors and multiplying. I did something similar for my D&A statement with ridge height, roof pitch, wall & roof materials, road/sun orientation. It was not obvious that anyone ever looked at it as one ever commented - so you may or may not want to bother. There are some apps that let you read dimensions from pdfs. Similarly on Google maps etc. For comparison, there's also an estimate of floor area on EPC docs, which are on the .gov site. It doesn't actually take long, depending on how many dwellings you want to cover, of course.

[Markuz]

I would say that your council website is the answer. Policies, plans and various documents usually under planning and building control. 
 

[Great_scot_selfbuild]

@Jane W I did something similar, and I was no planning specialist when I started. I've since spent so much time poring over planning documents, policies, websites and watching planning committees I consider myself at least averagely proficient. Your post has reminded me that I need to write up and share my experience here at some point before I forget the details.

 

Our situation:

Pre-app suggested no chance.

Set your expectations low (throughout! - 

We had a planning consultant and architect involved. Both were invaluable, but not without challenges and frustrations.

Architect produced a D&A statement, and whilst ok (better than many tbf), it didn't address many of our specific challenges adequately in my view.

 

Our specific challenge areas:

Arboricultural (but we engaged an Arboriculturalist from the start as we knew this needed the documentation produced by a professional with the right qualifications and credibility.

Landscape and character.

Access.

 

Apps and tools I used:

iPad and Apple Pencil - I would download pdfs and scribble on them (described below).

Procreate (I paid for the pro version and have made full use of it; most expensive app I've bought, but I saved well over the £80 or so in being able to produce images myself without having to pay for others to do them.

MS Word

MS Excel

ChatGPT (came to this very late, well after submission - I caution it's use, it's only as good as the instruction it's given and definitely needs checking, plus it can be easy to spot AI-written material if it isn't tailored).

 

What I did (and this may be relevant to your case):

Read the NPPF and highlighted all the areas that may work for and against us. Really important to identify (and not shy away from) the areas that are against you. You need to shape your case to actively knock these issues down (directly/indirectly, eliminate/mitigate).

Read the local plan. Identify the area you are within and focus on all the area-specific policies (as above).

Search for your council's 'definitive map' - ours had an interactive version which was very useful for providing something to screenshot and use (be sure to cite / check copyright permissions - many will allow you to include providing the source is cited).

 

Google Maps is useful, and I used a combination of the different mapping sources, imported to Procreate as different layers, made one slightly transparent and so I was able to highlight certain attributes that then aligned with the phrases from their own policies, to support my application.

 

I then produced a Landscape Context Assessment (I'm not a qualified landscape architect or other professional, so I just made clear in the opening and closing paragraph what the document was doing and that I 'the author' was presenting the information in good faith etc.).

 

And finally...

Once I'd written it in total, it was detailed and long, and the reality is that even the planning officer is probably not going to read everything in the detail you want them to. So, this is where I found ChatGPT came into its own (excuse the noddy guide, you may be more experienced than me, but in case others need it spelling out, this is what I did):

 

Open www.chatgpt.com

Enter the following: "The following text is comprises a [Design & Access Statement?] document as part of a planning application. Summarise the document as a succinct bullet-point list to include at the start of the document, with an introductory paragraph stating that it summarises the document contents: [Copy/Paste in the full text context of your document]"

Click the arrow to submit.

Watch and marvel!

 

Tailor and include this at the start of your document. The reason for this (for me) was that there were many aspects to local policy and we were policy compliant but likely to go to committee because that's just the way so many of our council's applications go. Committee members aren't planning experts and you need to 'land' your key points in the first couple of pages. Some will ready the detail, but not all (and they all have an equal vote). It's my opinion that the summaries I provided actually made the case to the officer so strongly that it was approved without the need for committee (and hence after 2.5yrs we could finally relax).

 

Attachments:

Couple of screenclippings showing how I used the mapping (local definitive map, policy map, google maps) and Procreate to layer the information together and draw on top of it.

 

Some links:

Magic Map (contains a detailed and accurate measuring tool - distance and area of any shape; more functionality than google measure and also has layers you can overlay):

https://magic.defra.gov.uk

 

Environment Agency Mapping tool:

https://environment.data.gov.uk/explore/6fd0120f-d465-11e4-abee-f0def148f590?download=true

 

Landscape Institute Technical Guidance Note 06/19 – Visualisation of Development Proposals

https://landscapewpstorage01.blob.core.windows.net/www-landscapeinstitute-org/2019/09/LI_TGN-06-19_Visual_Representation.pdf

 

HM Land Registry Mapping (Polygons)

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/inspire-index-polygons-spatial-data

 

Helpful blog describing how to make practical use of Land Registry polygons

https://anna.ps/blog/how-to-use-land-registry-data-to-explore-land-ownership-near-you

 

[Temp]

Site and Location plans available from several place online including..

 

https://www.ukplanningmaps.com/prices/

 

You would have to pick a suitable scale and work out the plot areas yourself. If most properties are rectangular a ruler and spreadsheet would make fast work of it.

[Jane W]

@Great_scot_selfbuild thank you for taking the time to post such a detailed reply. That information is so helpful and explaining the process you went through is also very useful.

Was yours done for an appeal or as supporting evidence in addition to your architects Design and Access Statement,  just wondering as the planning consultant is doing ours, but also that you mentioned it didn't have to go to committee.

I have also heard that some professionally written D&ASs are appalling and so I want to have a handle on what I think should be included and have one written for the planning consultant and architect to possibly refer to or use.

Thanks again

Jane

[Jane W]

1 hour ago, Temp said:

Site and Location plans available from several place online including..

 

https://www.ukplanningmaps.com/prices/

 

You would have to pick a suitable scale and work out the plot areas yourself. If most properties are rectangular a ruler and spreadsheet would make fast work of it.

Yes, thank you @TempTemp, I think these are the block plans they had used. Much appreciated 🙏 

[Great_scot_selfbuild]

9 hours ago, Jane W said:

@Great_scot_selfbuild thank you for taking the time to post such a detailed reply. That information is so helpful and explaining the process you went through is also very useful.

Was yours done for an appeal or as supporting evidence in addition to your architects Design and Access Statement,  just wondering as the planning consultant is doing ours, but also that you mentioned it didn't have to go to committee.

I have also heard that some professionally written D&ASs are appalling and so I want to have a handle on what I think should be included and have one written for the planning consultant and architect to possibly refer to or use.

Thanks again

Jane

@Jane W I did write one for the first submission, but what I’ve described above covers all the lessons and improvements made for our second application. For an appeal, you can’t really submit much more unless it directly addresses the reasons for refusal, so our appeal wasn’t a great deal more than the original submission.

 

In our second (successful) application we had:

Planning statement (by Planning Consultant)

Design & Access Statement included sustainability statement (by Architect)

Access strategy (by me - did my research and just made clear that it was produced ‘in good faith’, presenting all the facts and referencing all my sources at the end of the document)

Landscape Context Assessment (by me - lots of references to the GVLIA ed3 which I found a copy of, and they publish tech notes online; one of the links above, may or may not be relevant for you).