What to photograph on a site visit for a planning application

A site visit photograph checklist is worth more than a better camera. Most of the photographs an application needs are not the pretty ones. They are the boundary fence at its lowest point, the neighbour's first floor side window, the manhole cover in the rear garden and the dropped kerb that is three metres from where the drawing shows it. Go once, photograph systematically against a numbered plan, and you avoid the second visit that always happens in February when the light has gone.

Start with a numbered position plan

Print a site plan before you leave the office and mark camera positions on it as you go, with an arrow showing the direction of view. Number them in the order you take them, not in the order they will appear in the report.

That single habit does three things. It lets anyone reading the document work out where a photograph was taken from, which is the first question a case officer asks. It stops you discovering later that four shots of the rear elevation are actually the same shot. And it gives you a figure that can be dropped straight into a design and access statement or a heritage statement without rework.

Two additional columns on the printed plan help: one for the photograph number and one for a three word note of what it shows. Writing the note on site is faster than working it out from the image a fortnight later.

Street context and the frontage

Start wide and work in. The application needs to show what the street looks like, because most policy tests about character are answered visually.

Photograph the frontage square on from the opposite footway where the road is wide enough, then from each direction along the street at a distance that captures three or four properties either side. Take a shot from the approach in each direction as a pedestrian would see it, at eye level rather than from a car.

Then the detail that supports a design argument: the rhythm of the bay windows along the terrace, the pattern of existing extensions visible from the street, the variety of front boundary treatments, and any property nearby that has already done something similar to what you are proposing. That last one is evidence, so record the address.

If there is a listed building or a conservation area boundary within sight, photograph the relationship rather than the building alone. A picture of a listed cottage tells the officer nothing about setting. A picture of the cottage with your site behind it does.

Boundaries along their full length

Walk every boundary and photograph it in overlapping sections rather than taking one shot from a corner. Boundaries are rarely uniform, and the section that matters is usually the lowest, the most dilapidated or the one with a tree on it.

Record for each boundary: its type and height, who appears to own it, any change in level across it, and anything built up against it from the other side. A garage on the neighbour's side of the fence changes the overlooking argument entirely, and it will not appear on any drawing you have been given.

Photograph the boundary from both sides where you have access. Where you do not, photograph what can be seen above it, which is the view your future occupants will have and the view the neighbours will lose.

Levels, drainage and services

Levels are the thing most often wrong on an existing survey and most expensive to discover late. Photograph anything that reveals them: steps, retaining walls, the relationship between the ground and the damp proof course, standing water after rain, and the difference between your ground level and the neighbour's.

Take a shot of every manhole cover, gully, rainwater downpipe, soil vent pipe and inspection chamber, with something in frame for scale. Lift covers where it is safe and photograph the invert, because a drain run under the proposed extension is a design constraint and a build cost.

Services deserve the same treatment. Utility intake positions, the incoming water stopcock, the electricity supply, any overhead line crossing the site, any pole or stay in the garden, and the position of the gas governor. A photograph of an overhead cable across the rear garden has saved more schemes than any policy argument.

Neighbouring windows and the overlooking case

This is the set of photographs that wins or loses the amenity argument, and it needs to be deliberate.

1. Every window on a neighbouring elevation facing the site, photographed from the position of the proposed development.
2. The view from each of those windows towards the site, where access allows, or from the nearest publicly accessible equivalent.
3. The existing separation distance, with a range pole or a tape in frame.
4. Any existing obscure glazing, high level cill or secondary window, which changes whether a room is considered habitable.
5. The rear garden of each neighbour, showing how it is used and where the private amenity area sits.
6. The sun path relative to the site, noted rather than photographed, with the time and date of each image recorded so shadows can be interpreted.

Photograph the neighbour's boundary line at the point where a 45 degree assessment would be taken from. When the officer applies a daylight rule of thumb, having the image from that exact point removes the argument about where the line starts.

Materials and construction detail

Close-ups of brick, render, roof tile, window detail, eaves, verge and rainwater goods give the material specification an evidential basis rather than a guess. Take them square on, in even light, with a scale in frame, and include a mortar joint in at least one.

On older buildings, photograph the things that suggest phasing: straight joints, changes in brick bond, blocked openings, differing cill details and any visible movement. That record is what an assessment of the building's significance rests on, and it is far cheaper to capture now than to return for.

Record the condition of anything you will later argue is beyond repair. A photograph taken before scaffolding goes up is the only evidence that will exist.

Access, footway and visibility

Photograph the existing access from the carriageway, from the footway, and from within the site looking out in each direction along the road. Include the footway width, any street furniture, the position of gullies and the presence of parking restrictions.

For a new or altered access, stand at the driver's eye position back from the carriageway edge and photograph the view left and right. That is the visibility splay in practice, and it shows what a drawn splay cannot: the parked cars, the hedge, the bus stop and the bend.

Note the time of day. A street photographed at eleven in the morning looks nothing like the same street at seven in the evening, and a highway officer will know that. Where parking is part of the argument, the timing conventions used in a parking survey method statement apply equally to photographs you intend to rely on.

Metadata, dating and filing

Leave location services switched on so images carry coordinates, and check the camera clock before you start. A photograph with the wrong date on it is worth less than no photograph, and a set with inconsistent timestamps invites questions.

File on the same day. A folder per site, a subfolder per visit dated in reverse order, filenames that carry the photograph number from the position plan, and a copy of the annotated plan in the same folder. Keep the originals untouched and work on copies, because an unedited original with intact metadata is what you will want if anything is ever disputed.

Then write the captions while the visit is fresh. A caption that states the direction of view, the date and what the photograph shows turns a folder of images into a figure set that can go straight into a planning statement or a supporting document.

PlanScope reads coordinates from a site photograph where the image carries them, so an uploaded photograph can locate the site and pull in the constraint layers around it. Enter your postcode or upload a site photo to see what your project is likely to need.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.