With the urgent pressure for housing delivery, yet increasingly onerous planning application requirements and convoluted prior approval processes, we’re often now approached by clients wanting to find a swifter means of securing permission for residential development. Whether its simply to establish Class C3 principles on a small urban site or just to obtain certainty for … Read More
Adventures in Planning
We’re always keen to exchange ideas, knowledge and experience of the development industry. Here’s some of our insights to date, we’d love to hear yours…
Small sites, bigger challenges!
Following on from our 2018 blog highlighting the challenges of building homes on small brownfield sites, we thought it would be useful to take another look to see if the situation is any better than it was. Current planning policy promotes urban living, building more densely/higher to achieve the most efficient use of land, and … Read More
HOW TO DO: Blinded by the light
An issue that crops up on a regular basis for new development irrespective of size and scale and now with the added test for the Prior Approval conversion of existing office buildings, is ‘light’ – how much is there?; is there too much, enough or too little?; does the development block anyone else’s light?; does … Read More
HOW TO DO: How To Manage Noise With Your Development
We’ve recently dealt with the acoustic impacts of development on a variety of different applications in Bristol, including air source heat pumps on a residential site, kitchen extracts for takeaways and noise from music and events spaces. It’s reminded us of how frequently we’re now confronting the issue of noise with development, and how fundamental … Read More
Positive Purposeful Planning
The Planning profession is an ever changing beast. Always under review and alteration. Constantly vilified for being too slow, too fast, too restrictive, not restrictive enough, too bureaucratic, too full of NIMBY’s, and so the list goes on….. In the midst of all the competing views of Planning as both a process and a profession, … Read More
2021 – five and five
Welcome to 2021, never have we been so pleased to embrace a new year. Whoever would have imagined when we introduced our Planning Ventures manifesto back in January 2020, that the 12 months would have played out in such a challenging way, and been a real test of those pledges. As everyone, we’re desperate to … Read More
2020: Where do we go from here …
As this is our last blog of 2020, a year that has brought significant challenges for all of us, we thought we would take a moment to reflect on where we’re going and the changes we would like to see going forward. Undoubtedly, there is a period of significant change coming based on our individual … Read More
PV Bitesize: Your New PD Rights
Well, it’s certainly been a roller coaster few weeks in the planning-sphere, culminating in Johnson and Jenrick finally releasing their white paper vision for a new national zoning system. Largely ditching local plans in favour of graded areas of protection, renewal, and growth and riding roughshod over the democratic consultation process, the document also contains … Read More
Introducing Anna Smith…. One25 post-COVID
Anna Smith is the CEO of One25, a Bristol-based charity who specialise in helping women to break free from street sex work and addictions and build new, independent lives. As a female led Bristol business, we are very proud to have supported One25 over the past few years, and privileged to have become part of … Read More
To Object Or Not To Object – That Is The Question…
What issues can and can’t be covered by planning objection As part of the democratic application process we have a right to comment on the impact of a scheme, be it to offer support for the proposals or to object. We are consulted either formally through a local news publication, by a site notice, through … Read More