Methodology
Planning policy summaries
How the local answers, source links and national planning checklist are prepared and checked.
A consistent national checklist
Every authority is assessed against the same version-controlled catalogue of planning questions for England. It covers topics such as neighbour amenity, design, parking, heritage, nature, flooding, housing and application evidence. A question appearing in the catalogue does not mean that every authority has a local rule for it.
Bounded official-source selection
Each release uses a named set of documents selected from official council, joint-plan or other competent planning-publisher pages. Sources are classified by their role, such as development-plan policy, supplementary guidance or validation requirements. Only material whose current or partly current status can be supported by the official publisher is used for a public answer.
From research to a static page
An AI-assisted offline process helps locate candidate passages within the selected sources. A published answer must identify a supporting official document and source location. The finished results are written to a checked-in static artifact; the public page reads that artifact and does not perform live document retrieval.
Related appeal evidence
Some topics include a link to a published local appeal-evidence page for the same broad issue. A link appears only where that authority already has a published evidence page for the mapped theme.
Appeal decisions depend on the proposal, site and evidence before the Inspector. They can illustrate how an issue was considered, but they do not set the policy rule or predict how a different case would be decided.
Automated integrity and citation checks
Before an artifact is admitted, automated checks require one result for every catalogue question, valid source references and locators, consistent authority paths and allowed answer states. Cryptographic hashes bind the artifact to the exact national catalogue and source snapshot recorded in its manifest. The checks also reject prohibited private research fields and fail closed when an artifact is missing, incomplete or inconsistent.
AI and review state
These policy summaries are AI-generated and have not been editorially reviewed by a person. Automated validation checks structure, provenance and internal consistency, but it is not a substitute for professional source review.
Limits
A summary covers only its stated source set and verification date. It may not include every live map, neighbourhood plan, recently changed document or address-specific designation. Planning policy also involves judgement, and the answer for a particular proposal depends on its facts and location.
The summaries are general information, not legal or professional advice. Check the linked official documents and the authority’s current planning website before relying on a summary.