Independent planning risk assessment vscore.tech · Bath · United Kingdom

Explore a V-Score assessment

Planning risks, supporting evidence and recommended actions, drawn from the documents supplied. This example comes from a published application for new homes. Names, places and references have been changed.

Example report12 Orchard Close, NorthbrookFull application for new homes
Read15 documents, 78 pagesincluding scans and drawings
3 could stop approval5 need work0 in your favour

Could stop approval

Habitat removal with no ecological survey supplied

The site is described as an undeveloped paddock with native hedgerows, trees and grassland. The drawings show frontage hedges removed to achieve visibility splays and a tree removed to facilitate the development. The sustainability checklist refers repeatedly to a biodiversity statement or assessment, but no ecological survey or biodiversity statement is in the supplied set.

The land is currently an undeveloped paddock, featuring a mix of native hedgerows, trees, and open grassland.

Design, Access and Heritage Statement, p.4

Hedge removed located within highway boundary

Site Layout Plan 1:250 A3, p.1 read from scan

Biodiversity statement to be submitted alongside application

Sustainability Checklist, p.15 read from scan

What your council could say

The council could say it cannot assess the effect on protected and priority species, such as nesting birds and species using the hedgerows and grassland, because no ecological information has been supplied for habitat that would be removed.

Fix

Supply a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal by a qualified ecologist covering the hedgerows, trees and grassland to be removed, with any follow-up protected species surveys it recommends, before determination.

How to read it

Each point is set out the same way:

  • A plain title and a rating: could stop approval, needs work, or in your favour.
  • The words it rests on, quoted with the document and page, and marked where they were read from a scan or drawing.
  • What your council could say about it.
  • The fix, written so you can pass it to the consultant who needs to act.
View the full sample report Read our methodology

It reads the whole application

Up to 150 documents and 2,500 pages, with scans read by text recognition and drawings read as images.

It shows its working

Every point quotes its page, so you can check it in seconds and pass it to the right consultant.

It judges at the right date

Against the national and local policy in force when the application was submitted.

Every level reads every page you supply, including scans and drawings. The Check, Review and Audit differ in depth of judgement and professional review, not in what they read.

Why you can rely on it

How we test V-Score, what makes it independent, and what it does not do.

See the evidence