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Notes from the consent trenches.
Not content for content’s sake — write-ups of how real consents were actually won: the negotiations, the technical strategy, the rules most people trip over. Every post comes from a project we ran.
- Field note
- Ecology · protected species
- From
- Hyde Care Home, Dorset
- Outcome
- EPS licence granted
Bats in the building: what a protected roost really means for your project
Surveys, the Natural England licence and its three tests, bat bricks and lighting limits — the full pathway we ran at Hyde, from first assessment to granted consent.
Read the note- Field note
- Heritage · strategy
- Outcome
- Clean grant, Grade I setting
Anatomy of a heritage consent: rescuing a landmark the Blitz couldn’t kill
WW2 concrete, a failing church roof and Bristol’s toughest policy — how the Seamen’s Institute consent was built, argument by argument.
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- Field note
- F&B · technical
- Outcome
- Opened on programme
Kitchen extraction: the system that decides whether your restaurant opens
Three authorities, one duct — and why extraction is a feasibility question, not a fit-out detail. From the Chicking build.
Read the note- Field note
- Licensing · BCP
- Outcome
- Granted, no delay
From pavement problem to prime patio: winning a Bournemouth pavement licence
The pedestrian-flow negotiation, the 28-day statutory clock, and how a restaurant unlocked a new outdoor revenue stream.
Read the note- Field note
- Change of use · Class MA
- Outcome
- Prior approval secured
Beyond the blueprint: cracking prior approval on a complex mixed-use conversion
Deep-floorplate daylight, dead-space economics and a roof terrace that answered the amenity test — homes above retail, approved.
Read the noteFacing something like this?
Licensing, prior approval, bats in the roof, an enforcement letter — the rules reward people who know them.