Please see below information received from the Planning Portal.

I have noticed that you’ve previously used the Planning Portal to submit your planning applications, but were you also aware that you can purchase your site location plans through our mapping service?

Even with online applications steadily increasing over the past few years, still many mapping suppliers are producing maps in paper format. The scanning of these paper maps is against Ordnance Survey copyright rules and can lead to applications being rejected.

To help you avoid this we have developed a new service that enables you to buy your maps electronically, benefits of the service include:

• Ability to view your map before you purchase it
• Assurance your map is up to date with the correct licensing for your application
• Facility to highlight boundaries and annotate the map without the need for additional software
• No need to convert file formats - maps are ready to uploaded to your electronic application

To ensure this service is easy to use, we have partnered with four Planning Portal accredited, leading mapping suppliers - Streetwise, Stanfords, Getmapping and eMapSite.com. This will give you the choice to use the supplier that best suits your needs, whilst ensuring your map will be accepted but every Local Authority in England and Wales.

To start benefiting from this new service today or to just have a look please click here .

For those looking for the guidance on how to brand our buildings have a look here.

The Department of Health has reinforced its position on bed space standards for in-patient accommodation to combat hospital acquired infections.

Bed spaces width is 3.6m to provide suffucient space for clinical activities, meet manual handling requirements including hoists, meet disability access requirements including wheelchairs and provide a suitable environment for privacy and dignity. Refer to HFN 30 - Infection Controlin the Built Environment. The standards relate both to new build and to major reconfiguration schemes.

North Yorkshire Building Control have advised us that from 1 January 2009 a charge of £40.00 plus VAT (£46.00) will be made for applications that are withdrawn or returned.

Please ensure that all required information is correct and complete before submitting any Building Regulations Applications.

Planning Charges effective from June 2008

 Major Development:

 £300 + VAT for site visit, letter and one to one consultation with a senior staff member.  Further work is chargeable at Senior Officer hourly rates.

·         10 Residential units or more

·         Residential development on site of 5ha or more

·         1,000sqm of commercial floor space or more

·         Commercial development on site of 1ha or more

·         Scheme subject to EIA

Other Significant Development Charge:

£300 + VAT

·         Telecommunications development

·         Minerals or waste proposals on sites of 0.5ha or larger

Minor Developments:

£70 + VAT for site visit, letter and consultation with a Planning Officer.  Further work is chargeable at Officer hourly rates.

Schemes of 1-9 dwellings

·         Commercial development resulting in new floor space on sites smaller than 1ha or less than 1,000sqm

·         Changes of use

Commercial Adverts

£50 +VAT

Householder Development

£20 + VAT for written letter

Listed Buildings

Free

The standard fee must be paid in advance of any work commencing on the enquiry.

From 6 April 2008 most council’s will have on their web sites a Local Validation Criteria Manual which applies to all planning applications.  It explains what information is needed at the start of the planning process to help register an application, (different applications require different kinds of information) and this document should be referred to in order to make sure all the necessary information is complete before submitting a planning application.

Additional Fees with regard to discharging of Planning Conditions.

The Local Authorities now have the power to charge £85.00 for each Condition to be discharged.  See link below (Page 30) for details. http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/10.pdf 

The government has appointed Steve Quartermain to its new role of chief planner.

Currently executive director of Hambleton District Council, Quartermain will spearhead the government’s aim to reform the country’s ailing planning system.

One of his primary roles will be helping local councils to address the current skills and workforce shortage.

Quartermain said: ‘I am delighted to take up this role. It is a challenging and exciting time for planners in government, councils and throughout the profession.

‘My aim as chief planner is to make a positive contribution toward ensuring that planning promotes the development of prosperous and vibrant communities.’

Housing minister Caroline Flint added: ‘This is an important appointment. The new chief planner will play a vital role shaping the future of planning.

‘Steve will also help drive forward our ambitions to improve the skills and capacity of planners across the profession,’ she added. 

CABE and the Housing Corporation have announced a new toolkit developed to help housing clients and their design teams demonstrate to planners and funding agencies how their development proposals will meet Building for Life standards.

Building for Life standards have now been adopted by both the Corporation and English Partnerships and increasing numbers of local authorities are now demanding that house builders must fulfil a majority of the 20 Building for Life criteria.

CABE, which developed the toolkit for the Corporation, says the aim is to get all sides using the same design language to assess proposals. The guidance provides examples of design-related material - diagrams, plans, visuals and models - clients can include in grant application tenders or design and access statements.

The Corporation, for its part, says it also regards the toolkit as an assessment tool that will help funding bodies and planners judge whether proposals are up to scratch.

The new toolkit, entitled ‘Evaluating housing principles step by step,’ is available to download for free from http://www.buildingforlife.org/

Having told BSF schools designers to try harder, CABE is prescribing an increased dose of high quality design for the NHS LIFT programme for primary health care centres. The design champion has also called for schemes falling below its ‘excellent’ benchmark for design criteria not to be approved for construction. CABE surveyed a sample of 20 out of 82 LIFT projects completed between 2002 and 2006 and concluded that only 40% of its design criteria - looking at functionality, build quality and impact - scored ‘good’ and better. Only 7% of design criteria actually met its excellent rating. The agency has also called for project delivery teams to be strengthened through more design training and the support of committed client design advisors.

‘The LIFT programme is the NHS’s biggest ever investment in improving and developing premises for primary and community frontline services, so every one of those new buildings should contribute positively to the health and well-being of the local community,’ says Mairi Johnson, CABE’s interim director of enabling. ‘Great schemes such as the Heart of Hounslow and the Plowright Surgery in Norfolk show the kind of quality we want to see routinely.’

Good design features of the buildings surveyed included a single reception point on entering a building, which can offer an early welcome and easy orientation and generous amounts of light and ventilation. Areas of design weakness found in the sample survey include prioritising maintenance over the quality of the patient environment, resulting in the use of materials that create an overly institutional atmosphere.

The briefing paper ‘Assessing design quality in LIFT primary care buildings’ can be found here.

The government published its new Housing and Regeneration Bill today, which will facilitate the prime minister’s housing targets.

One of Gordon Brown’s key policies since coming into power has been his promise to deliver three million new homes by 2020. Today’s Bill will help make this possible, and aid the delivery of the required 240,000 new homes a year by 2016.

The Bill will also create the new Homes and Community Agency, which has seen the merger of English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.

This new agency will deliver more affordable housing, both social and private, by bringing together the two separate land and housing agencies.

It will also facilitate the government’s plans to provide 10 new eco towns, the locations of which are expected to be unveiled in February.

Richard Vaughan Architects Journal 16 November 2007

CABE is to be named as the official affordable housing quality audit body for England and will begin a programme of assessing the design quality of an ‘extensive sample’ of homes funded by the Housing Corporation.

Corporation chief executive Steve Douglas was due to announce the news at the National Housing Federation Conference this week. The Corporation has entered into a service agreement with CABE to audit the National Affordable Housing Programme where homes are being developed through its partnership funding route.

The move is meant to bolster the Corporation’s new Design and Quality Strategy standards. The Corporation adds that the focus will be on the external environment, rather than internal design or environmental performance, using the Building for Life assessment process.

The ‘draft’ guidance for LPAs represents a coherent approach. It demonstrates how the info required to process an application has ballooned over recent years and the concomitant need for a host of specialist inputs. 

It introduces another delay in the introduction of the national application form which will be obligatory for online and written applications from 6 April 2008 (delayed this time from 1st October 2007). The new form is to be used for any of the following: 

Householder consents 

• Outline and full planning permission and approval of reserved matters 
• Listed Building consent 
• Conservation Area consent 
• Advertisement consent 
• Consent under Tree Preservation Orders 
• Lawful Development Certificates 
• Applications for Prior Notification under the General Permitted 

Development Order 1995 

• Removal or variation of conditions. 

The Guidance provides a different selection of items for each type of application covered by the national form. For a planning application this is the list: 

• Affordable housing statement 
• Air quality 
• Biodiversity survey and report 
• Conservation Area appraisal 
• Daylight/sunlight assessment 
• Environmental Impact Assessment 
• Evidence to accompany applications for town centre uses 
• Existing and proposed car parking and access arrangements 
• Flood risk assessment 
• Foul sewerage assessment 
• Heritage Statement (including historical, archaeological features and 
• Scheduled Ancient Monuments) 
• Impact assessment 
• Land contamination assessment 
• Landfill statement 
• Lighting assessment 
• Noise impact assessment 
• Open space assessment 
• Other plans (3 copies to be supplied unless the application is submitted electronically. All plans and drawings should include: paper size, key dimensions and scale bar indicating a minimum of 0-10 metres) 
• Photographs/photomontages 
• Planning obligations/draft Head(s) of Terms 
• Planning Statement 
• Regeneration statement 
• Statement of Community Involvement 
• Structural Survey 
• Transport assessment 
• (Draft) travel plan 
• Tree survey/Arboricultural implications 
• Utilities statement 
• Ventilation/extraction statement 
• Site waste management plan (including relevant refuse disposal details). 

See www.communities.gov.uk

The above is taken from a circulated letter from the ACA on validation of planning applications. It pays to check with the LPA but the requirements are becoming more onerous.

Pre-application consultation with planning officers which aim at agreement as to what is required to validate the proposed application will be essential in most cases. If the authority insists on charging a fee for these, such fee should be deductible from the [imminently to be further increased] application fee and not be in addition to it. This is a point to be emphasised in responding to local consultations on the proposed local requirements.

New Department of Health guidance asks Trusts to issue clear guidance on the use of mobile phones. Some of their recommendation are here:

Mobile phone use - Do’s and Don’ts

Do’s

• Do – carry out a thorough risk assessment to determine where mobile phones may and may not be used,
• Do – make sure you have a written policy on mobile phone usage, that is readily available for patients and visitors,
• Do – ensure there is a named official to take responsibility for the policy,
• Do – make all staff aware of the contents of the policy and make it easily accessible to them,
• Do – empower staff to challenge the misuse of mobiles on the site,
• Do – update the policy periodically according to changes in the healthcare environment and advances in technology
• Do – clearly designate specific areas where mobile phones can be used,
• Do – make it clear that mobile phone use also includes the use of the camera facility,
• Do – clearly label designated ‘usage and non-usage’ areas with appropriate signage,

Don’ts

• Don’t – allow unfettered mobile phone use throughout the healthcare premises,
• Don’t – allow mobile phone use within 2 metres of sensitive medical equipment (as specified by MHRA)
• Don’t – allow patients and visitors to use the camera phone facility without permission,
• Don’t – subject patients to noisy ringtones, music from inbuilt players, constant “chatter”, as they are recuperating
• Don’t – allow patients and visitors to charge their mobile phones from the hospital’s power supply

Although NHS Trusts must ultimately decide where mobile phones are and are not allowed the Department of Health suggests that their usage, for safety, privacy and dignity and annoyance reasons, are not used in the following areas;

• On wards,
• Intensive therapy units,
• Operating theatres,
• Maternity wards,
• Special care baby units,
• Children’s wards/areas.

The whole guidance paper can be found here