New planning rules from 6th April?

[solarcat]

Hi All,

I've just been told by a local planning officer that a new set of rules concerning solar will be enforced from the 6th April. Unfortunately she said she did not have the new set of rules yet. Does any of you know know where to access them? How will our life change after the 6th April?

 

[TedM]

The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (England) Order 2012

I have referred to these before. Part 43 covers permitted development rights for non-dwellings and flats.

 

[Earthstore]

I have seen the draft today, it appears more for commercial.
They have taken down one hurdle by relaxing planning, but put up another by requiring an EPC.
Basically, this was as I understand it, on a commercial roof if you install and leave a minimum of 1m on all 4 sides, you can install under permitted rights, also on a flat roof you can install up to 1m from the plain of the roof.
Ted will put us right. (he beat me to it)

 

[BruceB]

Has anyone thought through what the phrase, "..... on a roof and within 1 metre of the external edge of that roof;" means?

Is it effectively just the verge or hip (sides) rather than ridge (top) or eaves (bottom)?

Regards
Bruce

 

[Earthstore]

My take on this is all the way around.
Why can they not ever write a document just tells the answer, instead of turning them all into a kind of quiz???

 

[SRE]

Well that's good news in a way - if it's just going back to a farmhouse built since the 30's with natural gas or a biomas boiler then it makes it easier.

 

[solarcat]

I know, it's just ridiculous!

Anyways, what I don't understand is...after the 6th of april will PV on a block of flats with a commercial property on ground floor become permitted development?

 

[TedM]

Yes, as long as you meet all the other conditions that apply to permitted development.

Previously that would not have come under the definition of a block of flats, but from April 6th it will fall into the 'everything else' catch-all that is used in the new legislation.

Part 43
A. The installation, alteration or replacement of solar PV or solar thermal equipment on a building other than a dwellinghouse or a block of flats.

where the definition of “block of flats” is a building which consists wholly of flats.

 

[solarcat]

Thanks Ted M, translating Legal into English is not everyone's piece of cake.

Local council here still say that we need to apply for planning, and they want to charge a small fortune for it355! So I'd better wait until the 6th April and simply not apply!

 

[SolarRoofSols]

what is article 1(5) land?

"(e) in the case of a building on article 1(5) land, the solar PV or solar thermal equipment would be installed on a wall or roof slope which fronts a highway;"

also, how did you find out about this, have i missed some communications? Isn't this something that our governing body should be informing everyone about??!?

 

[TedM]

Article 1(5) is a term that refers to National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), The Broads, conservation areas and World Heritage sites.

 

[JMT]

I am presuming this just applies in England and Wales and not Scotland?

 

[TedM]

This just applies in England at the moment.

It's also worth reinforcing that this applies only to "microgeneration" so systems over 50kW would still need planning approval.

 

[solarcat]

Local planning officers still completely unaware of this...I guess we'll just need to wait until the 6th April to see it happen!

 

[solarcat]

...Still no update on Planning Portal and local council completely unaware of new rules! Any advice on how to prove that the new planning regulations are now applicable?

 

[babba]

I found a link which is plain english I think..

Planning permission no longer required for non-domestic solar installations |*Solar Power Portal

Not sure if it has been posted already ?

 

[TedM]

Just quote them "The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (England) Order 2012 SI 2012/748 coming in to force from 6th April 2012".

Scotland already has something broadly equivalent while Wales is still lagging behind.

 

[whinmoor]

We are looking at doing our first ground-mounted system under the new rules. We intend to go for a 4kWp similar to Solarcity's fine arrangement:

http://www.electriciansforums.net/p...gy-forum/54910-nice-pv-jobs-3.html#post503343

The new rules say: "The size of the array should be no more that 9 square metres or 3m wide by 3m deep."

Does this mean the surface area of panels or the surface area of land over which the array is based?

In the case of Solarcity's photo, assuming the panels are 1m x 1.5m, wouldn't his array cover 24 square metres?

Does this mean only a tiny ground-mounted array (approx 6 panels) can avoid planning permission, or am I missing something?

 

[Earthstore]

Had not seen that rule, either way though it is tiny.
Hopefully Ted will tell us?

 

[TedM]

The panel surface can be 9m[SUP]2[/SUP] max with each side being 3m max - so yes not much more than 1kW under permitted development for a ground mounted array. This is the same for both domestic and non-domestic.

 

[JulianC]

Has anyone thought through what the phrase, "..... on a roof and within 1 metre of the external edge of that roof;" means?

Is it effectively just the verge or hip (sides) rather than ridge (top) or eaves (bottom)?

Regards
Bruce

Did anyone every come up with a definitive answer to this? Like Earthstore, I take it to mean 1m all round (ie. including eaves and ridge) but that obviously has a significant impact on the size of array that can be installed. (I am loathe to contact my local council at this stage as history has proven them clueless).

 

[Gavin A]

the solar PV or solar thermal equipment would be installed on a roof and within 1 metre of the external edge of that roof;

(d)​

the solar PV or solar thermal equipment would be installed on a wall and within 1 metre of a junction of that wall with another wall or with the roof of the building;

I'm working on the basis that as it specifically says 'external edge of that roof' and specifies for walls that it is the junction of that wall with another wall or roof, that this indicates that it's not talking about any HIP ridges, or even necessarily the main ridge, or any other junctions of one bit of the roof with another, but would apply to the gutter of the roof, and any external edges at the ends of a gable style roof face.

We have had a customer check with planning, and they agreed with this, and even said they weren't really bothered about the 1m rule if it wasn't really visible from the road anyway.

1m from the actual edges is a good idea anyway for maintenance etc, which is probably what the rule is about.

 

[babba]

Gav A, I had to look at the link on the first page I posted and I do agree regarding edges of building 1 meter clearance, not the ridge and gutter.

Im losing it.