“Calculate the area and volume of your works to see if planning permission is required.
It is vital to know the volume
of a proposed development if you are planning a new building or extending an existing one. (PP’s Volume Calculator:
“All dimensions must be based on external measurements of the building or structure
involved and not internal measurements”.)
Most buildings and extensions have sloping roofs - making the calculation of volume a tricky
task. It is important to get it right if you are deciding whether planning permission will
be needed.
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COMMENT
It is clearly seen that the dimensions are required
to be entered into the calculator above.
Why then are they not on the drawings themselves?
The scores of Dorset’s earnest planning committee members at Town and Parish trying
to do their level best to make proper assessments of planning applications are thwarted in their task by exhortations from
architectural consultants to “scale” the drawing. In fact responsible architects' drawings normally contain the
caveat, “DO NOT SCALE”
These consultants then make this task even more exasperating by not providing a “scale
bar” in addition to the missing key dimensions. (We don't all possess an architect's Rule!) And of course, accredited
architects and those properly trained in their craft know that it is not technically correct to scale even original drawings,
not to mention attempting to scale photo copies or enlargements which contain their own inherent errors due to their processes,
errors which can be as much as 25 centimetres in a drawing at 1:500 scale
The following statement is all that requires to be added to the
National and Local Planning application forms:
“For clarification:
- The block plan shall include both existing and proposed development.
- All plans and drawings shall include critical dimensions”
(Taken from other LPA’s existing planning application form check lists)
It beggars belief that a person as highly qualified and experienced as Dr D Evans (Director
of Planning and Environment) at West Dorset District Council, should maintain such intransigence in not
requiring planning applications' accompanying drawings to include all critical dimensions de rigueur, in spite
of a recent glaring example of the misreading of an undimensioned drawing leading to a perverse planning approval.
The requirement for key dimensions to be shown on planning application drawings is not
only common practice throughout the rest of the country but also LPA’s have been exhorted to follow this practice in
numerous Government planning guidance publications. (LPA = Local Planning Authority)
Not only would this simple change in requirements benefit local residents and planning
committee members it would help significantly further to improve the LPA’s performance in dealing with applications.
