Do I need a survey?
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The importance of surveys for town planners
Accurate data is the foundation for a successful project, whether a conservation, new build, commercial or agricultural development. Our land surveys help town planners make the most of land and infrastructure. They also reduce risks like flooding, poor drainage, and other environmental issues. They offer detailed information and context early on, ready for creating a formal plan.
Town planners often need the same information as the architect on a scheme to fully understand what a plot of land or a building can offer. Our town planning surveys enable you to assess a site against planning policy and understand its constraints. They offer key support for your planning applications and ensure projects can meet regulations.
Supporting rural and urban planning
Getting the right land surveys ensures you can make plans that comply with regulations and prevent unexpected site challenges. They reduce the risk of costly design changes or construction delays due to unforeseen issues later on.
Our town planning surveys can be shared with the wider design and construction team, so everyone is working from the same starting point. At the end of a project, we can also carry out as-built surveys to show that the site meets with the plans. This also assists with the preparation of land registry plans for sales or sign offs with regulatory bodies.
Depending on the location and type of land or building you are developing, you may need detailed investigations from other professionals. over and above just a topographical or measured building survey. Our experience of working with specialist partners means we can refer you to other services from fellow trusted construction professionals.
Why choose Cheshire Surveys
We provide a range of surveys and related services across the North West, Cheshire, North Staffordshire and North Wales.
Passion & technical expertise
25+ years experience
Quality services tailored to your project
Meet our team on site
What surveys could you need?
As-Built Surveys
A fully up-to-date record of what has just been constructed, ensuring it matches the proposed plans. Useful for producing further plans that require an accurate site layout.
Boundary Surveys
Clearly understand your boundary lines, remove uncertainty around neighbouring land, and prevent disputes.
Floor Level Surveys
Quality survey check for various floor construction stages, from existing floors to newly constructed slabs.
Garden Surveys
Highly detailed, specialist topographical survey for garden landscaping and redesigns.
GPS Surveys
Ideal for covering large open spaces, like fields, or where access may be restricted or challenging.
Measured Building Surveys
3D site survey of a building’s layout and structure that can also be used to produce floor plans, elevations and cross-section drawings.
Movement Monitoring Surveys
Tracking and recording movement or alterations, such as crack monitoring and land movements, in either a built structure or a landform.
River & Floodplain Surveys
Surveys of riverbanks and beds, as well as adjacent floodplains. We record water levels and significant features for flood risk assessments and erosion monitoring.
Road Surveys
Comprehensive record of current road layouts and levels, including kerbs, street furniture and road markings. Ideal for visibility splays and new highways designs.
Setting Out
Geocordinated setting out services for building groundworks and steelworks for new housing, commercial and industrial sites.
Surveys for Land Registry Title Plans
Site surveys for creating Land Registry compliant plans to record areas of sale, transfer, correction or first registration.
Topographical Surveys
Accurate, scaled plan of a site’s terrain, and a record of the position and levels of both manmade and natural features.
Volumetric Surveys & Terrain Models
Measuring the total amount of stockpiled, extracted or collected materials and aggregates. Suitable for construction, calculating and auditing.
Why might you need a survey?
Surveys are essential for understanding land and its surrounding areas. They support planning and development by providing accurate data on existing conditions and current usage. Topographical surveys can show a huge range of features, including structures and vegetation. But they also cover road details, like pedestrian crossings and speed humps, and street furniture, like bus stops, post boxes and street lamps.
You can learn more about existing structures too. Measured building surveys can show current elevations, floor plans and cross sections. This is ideal for redevelopment or restoration projects, especially for historic buildings.
Our surveyors also support town planners in defining boundaries and land ownership. This ensures they have accurate information about the area, and any limitations. Boundary surveys can assist with demonstrating that a new development will fit onto a plot. Fully understanding ownership and other land considerations can help when creating new boundary treatments.
Our measured surveys provide you with critical site data, allowing you to assess a project’s feasibility in terms of regulatory, design and cost constraints. With quality land survey data, town planners can analyse individual sites, and make more informed decisions about an area’s growth and development. They can comprehensively assess proposed developments and projects within a council’s framework.
Town planning surveys offer essential information for planning infrastructure, ensuring regulatory compliance, and minimising conflicts with existing land uses. This ensures that infrastructure is built in suitable locations while minimising risks, regulatory issues, and environmental impacts.
A topographical survey provides a shared reference point for the whole design and planning team. It helps prevent costly mistakes caused by working from outdated or incorrect information. They can also be critical for assessing the risks of a development.
An up-to-date site survey makes the planning application process easier and ensures site conditions are correctly reflected in designs. They support various professional risk assessments, like a geotechnical engineer assessing land stability or a consultant performing a flood risk assessment.
Land surveys play a vital role in ensuring that planning applications meet legal and regulatory requirements. Local planning authorities need accurate current site data for a valid planning application, and to assess proposed applications.
The more detailed information on the existing situation that is submitted, the better. You’re more likely to succeed and speed the process up for a decision. A professional measured plan of the current site reduces the risk of rejection or delays, ensuring a smoother approval process.
For example, a new dwelling proposal will require details of existing ground levels, as well as the new site levels. Our topographical surveys can provide the existing levels. This allows you to decide an appropriate finished floor level for a new building, while accurately referencing the original levels.
Our town planning project support
Project examples and costs
Land development for housing
Topographical survey of a large brownfield site at the feasibility or planning application stage, but post-demolition of any existing buildings.
Estimated cost: £4000 – £6000 + VAT
Basic measured house survey
Basic survey and measured building plans for a semi-detached property to support planning applications for a side and rear extension.
Estimated cost: £1500-£2000 + VAT
Floodplain survey
Level survey of a development site and a topographical survey of an adjacent watercourse to inform the flood risk assessment.
Estimated cost: £1250.00 + VAT
Speak to our experts
Get free advice or a quote from our experienced team.
We’re known for our reliable, quality service and attention to detail.
What are the benefits of surveys for town planners?
Town and urban planning surveys provide crucial, accurate and sensitive data. They support decision making on land use, infrastructure development and environmental sustainability.
Land and measured building surveys can help demonstrate that a proposal is suitable for a specific location. This can support stakeholder and community engagement by showing how a proposal integrates with an existing area and its character. They can also show that new plans are sustainable.
Getting surveys early on avoids legal issues, ensuring projects are developed in the most cost and time efficient ways. We recommend that any site where significant changes or new construction will take place should make use of our land surveying services.
Each construction site is unique and we work with you to deliver the best measured surveys for your project. We’ll help you get the right data so you can make the most informed decisions.
How we work
Step 01
Request a quote
We’ll need your project’s address and a site plan. We’ll then get in touch for a consultation to confirm site details and understand exactly what your project needs.
Step 02
Quote accepted
Once your project is confirmed with us, we’ll arrange a convenient date for your survey.
Step 03
We complete your survey
We’ll visit your project site to carry out the survey. We can meet you on site if needed. We will then process the survey data and create a survey drawing.
Step 04
Receive your survey
We’ll share the survey data with you, usually within a few days. We use industry standard file types and can issue all the drawings in multiple formats.
