PLANNING PITFALLS

Overview

The usually property owners and tenants are confused that planning permission is required or not for the proposed change use of land. Which; leads to the changes taking place without permission.

These actions sometimes cause severe difficulties and financial issues for the owners as they cannot continue the work according to new land use without the planning permission.

The planning department has a very detailed set of rules that which alteration can be allowed and which changes require permission or which doesn’t. The problem starts because the rules are spread on multiple pieces of primary and secondary legislation and the owners and tenant ignore or overlook the minute details.it is also difficult to find and the up to date version or latest version of the rules.

The planning act

The starting point is Section 26(1) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (“the Planning Act”) which provides that any material change in the use of buildings or land is “development”. Under the Planning Act, all “development” requires planning permission unless expressly provided otherwise.

When the proposed new and the existing use belong to the same group or class as specified by the Government order then no planning permission is required.

Use classes order

The town and country planning (order 1997) use classes is the current government order. It is divided into 11 different sets of classes of use. Each class describes a different number of users.

Class 2 – Financial and Other Services.
Use for the provision of:
(a) financial services;
(b) professional services; or
(c) any other service (including use as a betting office);

When both the existing and the proposal use are in the same class then no permission is required. Planning permission is mostly granted for the use, not for the class of users.

the 11 classes don’t cover all the possibilities of the land use of the building. If any user is not present in any of the classes then that comes under the “sui generis” (of its own kind) domain. Then it is not possible to change it to or from that use under UCO

Permitted Development

For some land-use cases you don’t have to take planning permission for their execution as they come under the category of PERMITTED DEVELOPMENT. Under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992 (“the GPDO”).

The permitted development work is one of the concerns of the GPGO. It covers the minor extension of the houses or the telecom equipment installation. In part 3 of the GPDO planning permission is granted to certain users. The permission granted use is the one which has the same or less impact on the inanities than the existing use. For example, the GPDO grants planning permission for a change from Class 3 Food and Drink to Class 2 Financial Professional and Other Services.

Some changes are allowed in the Planning Act and the UCO but other changes are allowed in GPDO WHY?

The main two reasons are that in some specific circumstances the local authorities can disapply the GPDO and it can be disapplied is a certain area of conservation. The second reason is that it’s easier to make changes in response to the developing policy by the government then they will make it a part of the planning act

conclusions

when implementing a change use of land, you should always discuss and consult with a planning officer at the planning authority and have their comment on the land use which will help you in the process and also consult specialist planning solicitor.

All the planner professionals should follow the guidelines of the use of land, so that time and money both be saved.