If you’ve received notice that a neighbour is planning to extend their property or that land close to you is going to be developed, your first concern is whether it will affect you, and if so, how. Will it block out light? Will it impact traffic and parking? As a member of the general public, you’ll want to see detailed and accurate plans showing just how you and your local environment will be affected. Planning applications need to meet certain standards in order to communicate this information effectively, and they won’t even be considered by authorities unless those standards are met. So what if you’re thinking of extending your own property: how do you go about preparing planning maps?
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Some of the top reasons for planning applications being rejected are for fundamental factors, such as the wrong scale, an out-of-date map, a photocopy, tracing or some other reproduced map (which could be an infringement of copyright) and maps that aren’t pointing north.
Depending on the size of your development, you may need a Site Location Plan or a Block Plan. The scale requirements of your map also may depend on whether it’s in an urban or rural area.
Ordnance Survey maps are ideal to use for planning applications, but there are rules that need to be adhered to when using them. For example, the map can’t be a reproduced document – it must be original and licensed and bear the OS Crown copyright and appropriate licence number. It mustn’t be a Land Registry document, either.
Getting it wrong the first time can be very costly, both in financial terms and time-wise. Therefore it makes sense to turn to a specialist supplier of planning maps who will know exactly what’s needed and how to present an application in a way that will give the best chances of approval.
The Whole Package
Preparing a planning application is a complex business and can be a major headache for the uninitiated. A specialist supplier will contact and work with the appropriate land and property professionals to bring together all the information needed to produce planning maps for their customers’ needs. They have the necessary requirements to create approved Ordnance Survey Detail maps, showing details of everything man-made and natural, so your application will show how your proposals will affect the immediate surroundings.
As a vital part of any planning application, a planning map needs time and effort to produce to a standard that will adequately support your submission and give it the best chance of success. The last thing you’ll want is a rejection or hold-up on what might otherwise be a sound proposal simply because of an inadequate map. A good planning map with all the required elements included will help the local authority’s planning department come to a swift decision on the application. This helps make the whole process much smoother and quicker, meaning that work can start on the development sooner.
