What site data a drafted report actually needs from you
Constraint layers give you the flood zone and the listing. They do not give you levels, boundary condition or neighbouring window positions. Here is how to split the work.
A drafted planning report is only as good as the site data behind it. Public datasets will tell you the flood zone, whether there is a listed building nearby and whether the site sits in a conservation area. They will not tell you the ridge height of the neighbouring bungalow, where the manhole is, or that the rear boundary is a retaining wall failing at one end. The site data for a planning report divides cleanly into what a tool can look up and what only you can supply, and knowing which is which saves a round of revisions.
PlanScope inserts a [TO BE CONFIRMED] marker wherever a site-specific fact is missing rather than filling the gap with something plausible. Those markers are a feature. Every one of them is a question you have to answer before submission.
Data the tool can obtain from public sources
Enter a postcode or address and the property picker locates the building, with three modes: automatic selection, dropping a pin, or drawing the footprint yourself over satellite imagery. Street-level imagery and building footprints from open mapping data within 500 metres are available alongside.
From that location, automatic constraint detection checks the site against Environment Agency flood data, Historic England listed buildings and conservation areas, and Natural England SSSI layers. The recommendation engine then applies thresholds covering major development, flood zones, heritage, National Landscapes, Tree Preservation Orders, Air Quality Management Areas and buildings of 18 metres or more.
Two alternatives to typing a postcode exist. Upload a site photo and coordinates are read from the image where it carries them. Or upload documents: PDF, JPG, PNG, DOC, DOCX and DWG files are accepted, and the guided wizard takes PDFs, images and Word documents.
What this gives you is the constraint context and the report shortlist. It does not give you a description of the site.
Data only a site visit produces
Nothing in any national dataset records the following, and every one of them turns up in a planning statement or a design and access statement:
- Existing ground levels and falls across the site, and the relationship between internal floor level and external ground level.
- Ridge, eaves and parapet heights of the host building and of the buildings either side.
- Positions, species and approximate canopy spread of trees on and adjacent to the site.
- Boundary treatments: type, height, condition, and who appears to own each one.
- Window positions and room uses on neighbouring elevations facing the site, which drive the whole amenity argument.
- The existing surface treatment, drainage points, gullies, manholes and any visible services.
- Current and recent use of the building, and the condition it is in.
- Access geometry: the width of the crossover, the sightlines in each direction, the number of cars that presently park on site.
- Overhead lines, substations, poles and anything else physically on the plot.
An hour on site with a tape, a camera and a printed location plan produces most of that. A drafted report written without it will either omit the points or flag them, and a case officer reading a document that describes the boundary as [TO BE CONFIRMED] will draw the obvious conclusion.
Levels, boundaries and ownership
Three items sit between the public record and the site visit, and each needs its own document.
A topographic survey to Ordnance Datum gives levels, tree positions with trunk and canopy, boundary positions as found, and the position of visible services. On anything more than a modest extension it is the drawing everything else is built on, and commissioning it before the design starts costs less than redoing the design after.
The Land Registry title plan gives registered boundaries and title number. It does not give a legal boundary, which is a distinction that matters when the red line is drawn. Where the red line includes land outside your client's title, the ownership certificate under the Development Management Procedure Order 2015 changes and notice has to be served.
The red line itself is a decision, not a fact. Include the land needed for access and visibility, and be aware of the consequences of drawing it too tight.
Existing use and planning history
The lawful use of the building is not in any public dataset. Nor is the planning history, reliably.
Get the history from the authority's own online register, searching by address rather than by application reference, and going back as far as the register allows. What you are looking for: existing conditions that still bite, previous refusals and their reasons, any enforcement history, whether permitted development rights have been removed by condition, and whether an Article 4 direction applies.
The last two are the ones that change the advice completely and are invisible from national data. An extension that would be permitted development on an ordinary house needs a full application where a condition on the original estate permission removed the rights.
Write the planning history into your input pack as a short dated list. It is the single most useful thing you can supply, and it is the item most often left out. What to check in the resulting text is covered in our note on factual errors to look for in a drafted planning document.
Constraint layers and their limits
Automatic detection tells you what a national dataset says. It does not tell you what the council's own map says, and the two differ more often than people expect.
| Layer | What it is good for | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|
| Flood map for planning | Strategic flood zone at site scale | Not a property-level statement, and surface water risk is a separate dataset |
| Listed buildings | Confirming a listing exists and its grade | Curtilage structures are not mapped, and the point location is not the extent |
| Conservation areas | Whether the site is inside or near one | Boundary digitisation is approximate at the edge |
| SSSI and designated sites | Statutory site presence | Local wildlife sites and habitat inventories sit elsewhere |
| Tree Preservation Orders | Flagging the possibility | Orders are held by the council and national coverage is patchy |
| Article 4 directions | Indicative only | Frequently absent from national data entirely |
Two rules follow. Where a constraint is flagged, verify it against the primary source before writing anything about it. And where a constraint is not flagged, that is not evidence of absence, particularly for Tree Preservation Orders and Article 4 directions. Ring the council or check their constraints map.
Public rights of way are another category that needs the definitive map rather than a national layer, as our note on checking rights of way on the definitive map explains, and the wider set of national datasets is covered in checking site constraints on the national planning data service.
Assembling an input pack before drafting
Put this together once, before you start, and the draft comes back usable:
- Address, postcode and a plan with the red line drawn.
- Site area in hectares or square metres, measured rather than estimated.
- Existing and proposed floorspace in square metres, by use.
- Number of units where residential, and the mix.
- A dated list of the planning history from the council's register, with application references.
- The topographic survey, or measured levels and heights where no survey exists.
- Photographs: each elevation, each boundary, the access, and the view of the site from the nearest public vantage point.
- The constraints you have verified yourself, with the source and the date you checked.
- Any pre-application advice received, in full.
- The design rationale in three or four sentences, in the designer's own words.
Item ten does more work than the other nine combined. A drafting tool can structure and cite. It cannot know why you put the extension on the north side.
One practical caution: check the current position on the site before uploading anything confidential, since terms and policies can change.
Checking the draft used what you supplied
Run four checks on the returned draft before you touch the prose.
Search for the confirmation markers and resolve every one. Check the site area, floorspace and unit numbers against your own figures, digit by digit, because a transposed number in a planning statement will be quoted back at you. Read every sentence that makes a claim about a constraint and confirm it against the source you verified. And check the planning history references appear and are correct.
Only then edit for argument. The supporting documents index shows which report types go with which kind of scheme, and our note on where drafting saves time on a householder application covers the smaller end.
PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.
Frequently asked questions
What can PlanScope find from a postcode alone?
The property location and footprint, with a picker offering automatic selection, a dropped pin or a drawn footprint. From there it checks Environment Agency flood data, Historic England listed buildings and conservation areas, and Natural England SSSI layers, then applies thresholds for major development, flood zones, heritage, tree orders and air quality areas.
What does a TO BE CONFIRMED marker mean in a draft?
It marks a site-specific fact the draft does not have, inserted deliberately instead of inventing a value. Each marker is a question you have to answer before submission. Resolving all of them is the first pass on any returned draft, before any editing for argument or tone.
Are Tree Preservation Orders shown in national data?
Coverage is patchy. Orders are made and held by the local planning authority, and national datasets may not carry them. Article 4 directions are frequently absent too. Where a constraint is not flagged, treat that as unknown rather than as absence, and check the council's own constraints map or ask them directly.
Do I need a topographic survey before drafting?
For anything beyond a modest extension, yes. A survey to Ordnance Datum gives levels and falls, tree positions with trunk and canopy, boundaries as found and visible services. Commissioning it before the design starts costs less than redesigning afterwards, and every other drawing is built on it.
Where do I get the planning history for a site?
From the local planning authority's own online register, searched by address rather than by reference and taken back as far as the register allows. You are looking for live conditions, previous refusals and their reasons, enforcement history, and whether permitted development rights have been removed by condition or by an Article 4 direction.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.