UK Planning Applications Scraper

Search and export UK planning applications from the official planning.data.gov.uk planning-application dataset.

The Actor turns the government API into integration-ready dataset rows with the council/source organisation identifier, application reference, proposal, site address, dates, decision, available coordinates or geometry, documentation URL, and stable source provenance.

It is designed for repeatable development monitoring and property research. It does not infer fields that the official source has not published.

What can you do with this Actor?

• Export a bounded sample of official planning applications for analysis.
• Filter by council/source organisation entity ID.
• Look up exact application references or Planning Data entity IDs.
• Search by a postcode or UPRN supported by the official API.
• Find applications submitted or source-updated since a date.
• Filter returned proposals by required keywords.
• Filter by published decision values such as Approve or Refuse.
• Search within a WKT point, polygon, or multipolygon.
• Schedule runs and compare stable entity IDs or source entry dates downstream.
• Send normalized records to spreadsheets, databases, webhooks, or data lakes.

Who is it for?

Property and development analysts

Build a reproducible feed of proposals, dates, decisions, locations, and source links for a chosen council or area.

Construction and planning teams

Search proposal language for supported project terms, then inspect each published council record through documentationUrl.

Researchers and journalists

Export official identifiers and provenance alongside the application facts used in an analysis.

Data engineers

Schedule a small updatedSince query, ingest the default dataset, and compare entityId plus entryDate with the previous run.

Why use the official Planning Data route?

The Actor queries the documented, anonymous Planning Data API directly.

That means:

• no council portal browser automation;
• no login or API key;
• no residential proxy;
• stable official entity identifiers;
• official pagination and spatial filters;
• source and documentation URLs retained in every row;
• an explicit scan bound for predictable scheduled work.

Coverage follows the source dataset. The Actor does not claim that every UK council or every historical application is present.

What data is extracted?

Field	Meaning
entityId	Stable numeric Planning Data entity ID
reference	Published planning application reference
proposal	Development proposal or description
address	Published site address text
organisationEntity	Official council/source organisation entity ID
submittedDate	Source start/submission date
decisionDate	Published decision date
entryDate	Date this record version entered Planning Data
decision	Published decision value
decisionType	Published decision route/type
developmentClassification	Official classification identifier or URL
point	Point in WKT format
latitude, longitude	Coordinates parsed from point
geometry	Other available WKT geometry
quality	Source quality marker when supplied
documentationUrl	Council/source application page
sourceUrl	Stable Planning Data entity page
sourceQueryUrl	Exact official API page used
dataset	planning-application
licence	Declared Open Government Licence
retrievedAt	UTC retrieval timestamp

Fields can be null when planning.data.gov.uk does not supply them.

Getting started

1. Open the Actor input page.
2. Keep the prefilled submittedSince date or choose a more precise filter.
3. Set maxItems to the number of useful applications you want.
4. Keep maxScanItems above maxItems when using local keyword or decision filters.
5. Click Start.
6. Open the Planning applications dataset view.
7. Export the rows as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS through Apify.

A small first run is recommended before increasing either limit.

Input parameters

organisationEntity

An array of official numeric organisation entity IDs.

Example:

[26]

references

Exact application references.

["AWDM/0550/25"]

entityIds

Exact Planning Data entity IDs for deterministic retrieval.

[10000098508]

postcodeOrUprn

A UK postcode or Unique Property Reference Number accepted by the official API.

submittedSince and submittedUntil

Inclusive dates in YYYY-MM-DD form. The lower bound is sent to the source API; the upper bound is applied to returned rows.

updatedSince

An inclusive Planning Data entry-date lower bound. This is useful for scheduled refreshes but is not built-in deduplication or alerting.

decision

Exact decision values matched case-insensitively.

["Approve", "Refuse"]

proposalKeywords

Every supplied term must appear in the proposal text, case-insensitively. These terms are applied after API retrieval.

["extension", "rear"]

geometryWkt and geometryRelation

Supply a POINT, POLYGON, or MULTIPOLYGON in WKT format. The supported relations are intersects, within, and contains.

maxItems

Maximum useful rows saved. Default: 20. Maximum: 10000.

maxScanItems

Maximum source rows inspected. Default: 20. Maximum: 100000. It must be at least maxItems.

Input examples

Recent submitted applications

{
  "submittedSince": "2025-05-01",
  "maxItems": 20,
  "maxScanItems": 1000
}

One organisation entity

{
  "organisationEntity": [26],
  "maxItems": 10,
  "maxScanItems": 1000
}

Source-update monitoring input

{
  "updatedSince": "2025-09-01",
  "maxItems": 20,
  "maxScanItems": 1000
}

Output example

A current source row is normalized like this:

{
  "entityId": 10000098508,
  "reference": "AWDM/0550/25",
  "proposal": "Single storey outbuilding, with metal pergola with aluminium louvres in rear garden, for use as an office and games room",
  "address": "2 Dankton Lane Sompting West Sussex BN15 0EE",
  "organisationEntity": 26,
  "submittedDate": "2025-05-01",
  "decisionDate": "2025-06-16",
  "entryDate": "2025-09-07",
  "decision": "Approve",
  "decisionType": "Delegated",
  "point": "POINT (-0.343124 50.834924)",
  "latitude": 50.834924,
  "longitude": -0.343124,
  "documentationUrl": "http://planning.adur-worthing.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=SVGKCLCBHHE00",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.planning.data.gov.uk/entity/10000098508",
  "dataset": "planning-application",
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0"
}

The dataset contains one row per accepted planning application.

How much does it cost to export UK planning applications?

Pricing uses one $0.005 start event plus one item event for each planning application saved. The per-item tiers decrease with the Apify customer tier:

Tier	Price per saved application
FREE	$0.00920
BRONZE	$0.00800
SILVER	$0.00624
GOLD	$0.00480
PLATINUM	$0.00320
DIAMOND	$0.00224

At BRONZE, 20 results cost $0.165: $0.005 to start plus $0.160 for results. Only useful rows saved to the default dataset receive an item charge. Source rows rejected by your filters are not item-charged.

Apify may separately enforce your run spending limit. Check the live pricing panel before a large run.

Monitoring workflow

1. Choose an updatedSince date.
2. Schedule the Actor daily or weekly.
3. Store entityId, entryDate, and the business fields you monitor.
4. Compare the new dataset with your previous snapshot.
5. Notify your own system when a new entity or changed entry date appears.

The Actor supplies stable comparison fields. It does not persist cross-run state or send alerts by itself.

Spatial workflow

Use geometryWkt when a buyer job is defined by an area rather than a council. For example, a polygon can select official source geometries that intersect a site-search boundary.

Spatial results depend on the geometry present in the official dataset. Records without suitable source geometry cannot satisfy a spatial query.

Integrations

You can connect the default dataset to:

• Google Sheets through Apify integrations;
• Make or Zapier workflows;
• webhooks triggered after a successful run;
• an S3-compatible lake or database ingestion job;
• Python, JavaScript, or command-line data pipelines;
• Apify schedules for recurring refreshes.

Use entityId as the main stable key and retain sourceUrl for provenance.

Run through the Apify API

Replace <APIFY_TOKEN> with your token.

cURL

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~uk-planning-applications/runs?token=<APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"updatedSince":"2025-09-01","maxItems":20,"maxScanItems":1000}'

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/uk-planning-applications').call({
  organisationEntity: [26],
  maxItems: 10,
  maxScanItems: 1000,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("automation-lab/uk-planning-applications").call(run_input={
    "submittedSince": "2025-05-01",
    "maxItems": 20,
    "maxScanItems": 1000,
})
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(items)

Use with MCP and AI agents

Add the Apify MCP endpoint to Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/uk-planning-applications"

Use the same remote-server configuration in Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/uk-planning-applications"
    }
  }
}

In Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code, open the application's MCP settings and add the apify server shown above.

Example prompts:

• “Find 20 planning applications submitted since 2025-05-01 and summarize the proposal and decision fields.”
• “Export ten applications for organisation entity 26 and retain source links.”
• “Run the UK planning application monitor input and compare entity IDs with my previous dataset.”

Reliability and retries

The Actor sends direct HTTPS requests to the official government API.

Each request has a 30-second timeout. Network errors, HTTP 429, and server 5xx responses are retried up to three times with bounded exponential backoff. Deterministic client errors are reported without an unbounded retry loop.

There is no browser, proxy, cookie, or login fallback.

Limits and source coverage

• Planning application coverage is whatever planning.data.gov.uk currently publishes.
• The dataset is described by the source as alpha.
• Some records have no address, decision, point, or geometry.
• proposalKeywords, decision, and submittedUntil are local filters and can require scanning more rows than are saved.
• maxScanItems can stop a selective search before maxItems is reached.
• Postcode/UPRN and spatial semantics follow the official API.
• The Actor does not download council documents or attachments.
• Applicant and agent contact fields are not promised because this official entity dataset does not consistently expose them.

Legality and responsible use

Planning Data declares the planning-application dataset under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Review the source attribution and licence before redistribution.

Planning applications can contain information about properties and people. Use the data lawfully, minimize personal-data processing, maintain provenance, and comply with applicable UK data-protection and direct-marketing rules.

This Actor is an independent data tool and is not affiliated with the UK government or any council.

Troubleshooting

My run returned fewer rows than maxItems

The source may contain fewer matching rows, fields needed by your local filters may be empty, or maxScanItems may have been reached. Check the run log and increase the scan limit only when necessary.

My council name is not an input option

The official filter uses numeric organisationEntity identifiers. Find the appropriate entity on planning.data.gov.uk and supply the number.

A result has null coordinates or decision

Those values were absent from the official source response. The Actor keeps nulls rather than guessing.

The source API is temporarily unavailable

The Actor retries transient failures three times. Retry the run later if all attempts are exhausted.

Can I search arbitrary proposal text server-side?

The official API does not expose a general proposal-text query in this route. proposalKeywords is applied locally to bounded scanned rows.

FAQ

Does this cover every council in the UK?

No completeness claim is made. It covers planning-application entities currently published by planning.data.gov.uk.

Does it scrape council portals?

No. It uses the official Planning Data API and only links to published council records when documentationUrl is available.

Can I monitor changes?

Yes, schedule updatedSince runs and compare entityId plus entryDate in your own storage. The Actor does not maintain cross-run history.

Are empty or rejected source rows charged?

No item event is charged for rows that are not saved. The one-time start event still applies.

Can I export CSV or Excel?

Yes. Apify datasets can be downloaded in JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, and other supported formats.

Can I request more than 500 rows?

Yes. The source page size is 500, while the Actor paginates until maxItems, maxScanItems, or source exhaustion is reached.

Related Automation Lab actors

This Actor is the portfolio's official UK national planning-record source. No closely related Automation Lab Actor is linked in the initial release rather than presenting a third-party competitor as a portfolio product.

For a broader workflow, combine these rows with your own property inventory, site boundaries, CRM, or business-intelligence system through Apify integrations.

Source and attribution

• Dataset: planning-application
• Source: planning.data.gov.uk
• API documentation: Planning Data API
• Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0

Always retain the application reference, source entity ID, and source URL when a downstream use needs auditable provenance.