UK Planning Applications Scraper

Scrape UK planning applications from all ~420 local planning authorities at once — one API, no council-by-council setup. Filter by council, application type, status, size, keyword or date, and get one clean row per application with address, description, decision, all key dates, map coordinates, and the agent (architect) company where the council publishes it. Powered by the PlanIt aggregator — no API key, no login. Billed per result.

How it works

✨ Why use this scraper?

• Every UK council in one run — PlanIt already aggregates all ~420 local planning authorities, so you don't integrate 420 different council portals.
• No API key required — reads the public PlanIt API directly; works the moment you hit Run.
• Map coordinates on most rows — latitude/longitude for mapping, territory analysis and GIS.
• Architect-firm leads — the agent (architect) company is included where the council publishes it (coverage varies by council — strong in some, absent in others; see FAQ). Filter to only applications that carry one.
• Rich filters — application type, decision status, size band, minimum dwellings, council, keyword and date range, combined in one run.
• Clean, stable fields — placeholders like "See source" are normalised to null, dates kept as-is from the register, one row per application.

🎯 Use cases

Who	What they do with it
Construction & trades	Find live projects by area, type and size; reach the architect firm behind them
Property developers	Track approvals and refusals by council, spot sites and competitor activity
Suppliers & subcontractors	Build pipelines of permitted developments in their region
Researchers / analysts	Map planning activity and approval rates by council, type or date
PropTech / GIS teams	Feed structured, geocoded planning data into their own products

📥 Supported inputs

Input	Example	Behaviour
Search keyword	solar	Free-text search on the application description
Council filter	Cornwall	Restrict to one or more local planning authorities
Application URL	.../planapplic/Wiltshire/PL/2026/04272/	That application is scraped directly
Filters	type / status / size / dates / dwellings	Combined server-side

Not supported: downloading the application's PDF documents, and the full comment/objection threads — this actor covers the structured application record and its published agent/applicant company.

🔄 How it works

1. Classify input — keywords, council names, filters and application URLs are assembled into PlanIt queries.
2. Query — PlanIt's aggregator API is called per keyword × council partition.
3. Page — results are streamed via offset pagination until maxItems or the result set is exhausted.
4. Normalise — each record is mapped to a stable row; placeholder values are nulled; coordinates and dates are extracted.
5. Push — the row lands in the dataset; export as JSON, CSV, Excel or via API. Optionally enrich the agent firm with a contact email.

⚙️ Input parameters

Field	Type	Default	Description
searchQueries	array	[]	Free-text terms matched on the application description
startUrls	array	[]	PlanIt application URLs (or search URLs)
authorities	array	[] (all)	Council names, e.g. Cornwall, Wiltshire, Leeds
appType	string	—	Full, Outline, Trees, Conditions, Advertising, Heritage, Listed, Telecoms, …
appState	string	—	Undecided, Permitted, Rejected, Withdrawn, Conditions, …
appSize	string	—	Small, Medium, Large
recentDays	integer	7*	Only applications from the last N days (*default when no other filter is set)
startDate / endDate	string	—	Date range, YYYY-MM-DD
minDwellings	integer	—	Minimum dwellings (target larger residential schemes)
onlyWithAgentContact	boolean	false	Only return applications that carry an agent (architect) name/company
enrichEmails	boolean	false	Best-effort email lookup for the agent firm
maxItems	integer	1000	Hard cap on rows collected
maxConcurrency	integer	10	Applications processed in parallel
proxy	object	Apify residential	Proxy settings

📊 Output overview

One row per planning application. Every row carries the core record (council, reference, address, postcode, coordinates, description, type/state/size, decision, all key dates, ward, case officer where published, document count and URLs, plus PlanIt and source-council links). The agent (architect) and applicant company are included when the council publishes them via PlanIt. Fields the source doesn't provide are null, so your column layout is stable across runs.

📦 Output sample

{
  "type": "planning-application",
  "source": "planit",
  "uid": "PA23/10208",
  "reference": "PA23/10208",
  "council": "Cornwall",
  "address": "Land At Truro, Cornwall, TR1",
  "postcode": "TR1",
  "coordinates": { "latitude": 50.2632, "longitude": -5.0510 },
  "description": "Construction of a single storey rear extension and associated works.",
  "appType": "Full",
  "appState": "Permitted",
  "appSize": "Small",
  "decision": "Approved",
  "receivedDate": "2023-07-03",
  "validatedDate": "2023-07-10",
  "decidedDate": "2023-08-14",
  "agentName": null,
  "agentCompany": "Ascent Architecture",
  "applicantName": null,
  "caseOfficer": "See planning portal",
  "ward": "Truro Boscawen",
  "documentsUrl": "https://planning.cornwall.gov.uk/...",
  "planitUrl": "https://www.planit.org.uk/planapplic/Cornwall/PA23/10208/",
  "sourceUrl": "https://planning.cornwall.gov.uk/...",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-18T05:05:00.000Z"
}

🗂 Key output fields

Group	Fields
Identity	uid, reference, council, planitUrl, sourceUrl
Location	address, postcode, coordinates.{latitude,longitude}, ward, parish
Application	description, appType, appState, appSize, decision, nDwellings
Dates	receivedDate, validatedDate, consultationEndDate, targetDecisionDate, decidedDate
People / leads	agentCompany, agentName, agentAddress, applicantName, caseOfficer (each where published)
Documents	documentsCount, documentsUrl, commentUrl, mapUrl
Meta	scrapedAt

❓ FAQ

Which councils are covered? All ~420 UK local planning authorities that PlanIt aggregates — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Filter to specific councils with authorities, or leave it empty for the lot.

Do I get the architect / agent contact? You get the agent (architect) company where the council publishes it through PlanIt — coverage varies a lot by council (strong in some, e.g. Cornwall; absent in others). The individual agent's personal name and phone are not exposed by PlanIt (they sit only on each council's own portal), so this actor does not claim them. Use onlyWithAgentContact to keep just the rows that carry a real agent company.

Do I need a PlanIt or Companies House API key? No. This actor reads PlanIt's public API directly — no key, no account.

How fresh is the data? PlanIt re-scrapes councils continuously; each row includes lastScraped. Use recentDays for daily-monitoring runs that only pick up new/changed applications.

Can I get map coordinates? Yes — most rows include latitude/longitude. A few older or partially-scraped records may not.

💬 Support

• Found a bug or need a field added? Open an issue on the actor's Issues tab.
• Direct contact: muhamed.didovic@gmail.com

🛠 Additional services

• Custom output shape, per-council agent/phone enrichment, or one-off datasets: muhamed.didovic@gmail.com
• Need a similar scraper for another public dataset? Drop an email.
• For API access (no Apify fee, just a usage fee for the API): muhamed.didovic@gmail.com

🔎 Explore more scrapers

If this Planning Applications Scraper was useful, see other scrapers at memo23's Apify profile. Pairs well with the Companies House Scraper and Europages Scraper for a full UK B2B / construction data stack.

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⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by PlanIt, GOV.UK, the Planning Portal, or any UK local authority. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

The scraper accesses only the publicly available PlanIt aggregator API, which itself republishes public planning-register data from UK local planning authorities. No authenticated endpoints or content behind a login are accessed. Users are responsible for ensuring their use complies with PlanIt's terms, the source authorities' terms, applicable data-protection law (UK GDPR, etc.) — particularly when processing agent/applicant personal data — and any contractual obligations of their own organisation.

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