Data Tools How-To – Page 2
How to use the public datasets and maps that planning applications rely on.
Data Tools How-To articles – page 2
159 articlesFinding and reading a local plan policies map online
The policies map shows where each local plan policy applies. Reading it properly takes ten minutes and saves the two most expensive surprises in a householder application.
Reading planning statistics for determination times
The quarterly statistics tell you how often an authority decides in time. They do not tell you how long your application will actually take, and the gap is mostly extensions of time.
Using Housing Delivery Test data in a submission
The Housing Delivery Test measurement is a published annual figure with defined consequences. Used well it takes two paragraphs. Used badly it invites a paragraph of rebuttal.
Finding appeal decisions that are actually relevant
Most appeal decisions you find will not help. Here is how to filter by authority, type and date, read for the reasoning rather than the outcome, and cite without overstating.
Checking SSSI impact risk zones before you apply
An impact risk zone is a consultation trigger, not a designation. Here is how to check whether your site sits in one, read the tagged development categories and plan for what follows.
Finding car availability data for a parking argument
Census car availability is published down to output area, small enough to describe your street. Here is how to pick the geography, pair it with a stress survey and present it as an annex.
Using census travel to work data in a transport statement
Census travel to work data is the standard mode share baseline in a transport submission. Here is which table to use, what geography to choose, and how to handle the 2021 figures honestly.
Check the receiving watercourse before you design a discharge
The water body you discharge into has a published classification and a published list of reasons for failing. Reading them first decides your treatment train, your consent route and whether a package plant is possible.
Finding existing borehole records before you commission a survey
Existing borehole logs and neighbouring planning applications can tell you most of what a first round of boreholes would. Here is how to find them, read them critically and use them to scope a targeted investigation.
Checking coal mining risk before you design foundations
A free ten minute check tells you whether your plot is in a Development High Risk Area. Here is how to read the mining map, what the risk assessment has to conclude, and how shafts and shallow workings change the foundation design.
Using the Heritage Gateway to find historic environment records
The Heritage Gateway is a screening tool, not a substitute for a formal record search. Here is what it covers, what it misses, and how to use the results in a desk-based assessment.
How to find an Article 4 direction before you rely on PD
An Article 4 direction withdraws permitted development rights in a defined area, and it decides whether your conversion needs an application. Here is how to find one, read it and confirm it in writing.
Measuring site area and floorspace for a threshold test
The same land can fall either side of 0.5 hectares depending on where the red line goes. How to measure site area and floorspace so thresholds are applied correctly.
Reading aerial photography as planning evidence
Dated aerial photography anchors a lawfulness case to fixed points. Here is how to source frames, read their limits, and present them so a council cannot dismiss them.
Reading a Flood Map for Planning extract correctly
The Flood Map for Planning gives you a flood zone and little else. Here is what it covers, what it leaves out, and how to present an extract that survives validation.
Checking energy certificate register data for a building
The energy certificate register gives a free floor area, a construction description and a date-stamped record of how a building was assessed. It misleads in predictable ways worth knowing before you rely on it.
Using historic maps to evidence a former land use
A sequence of OS editions is the cheapest evidence you will get about a site's industrial past. Read the annotations carefully, watch what disappears between editions, and never conclude a site is clean from maps alone.
Checking strategic noise maps before you fix a layout
Defra's strategic noise mapping under the Environmental Noise (England) Regulations 2006 is a free layout screening tool. It is modelled, averaged and four metres up, so it guides where bedrooms go and never replaces a measured survey.
Searching decision data across several authorities
Comparable decisions are assembled, not found. Here is a search method that returns officer reports you can cite, and a record you can still use months later.
Reading a council's housing land supply monitoring
Most of the argument about housing land supply sits in the assumptions, not the total. Here is how to test a published schedule site by site.
Using definitive map data for public rights of way
Planning permission does not authorise building across a recorded footpath. Here is how to read the definitive map and statement, and which order route applies.
Checking whether a watercourse is a main river
Main river status decides whether the Environment Agency or the lead local flood authority controls work near your channel, and how far from the bank that control reaches.
Reusing planning data under the Open Government Licence
Licensed public data can go into a paid report, with attribution and no implied endorsement. What the licence excludes, and why base mapping and imagery need separate terms.
Keeping constraint data current over a long project
Constraint evidence expires quietly over a multi-year programme. The datasets that change, the review points that catch them, and what to do when a designation lands mid-application.
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