Finding the highways comment a week too late
The practice has a dozen live planning applications across six councils. The project architect for one of them logs into the council's public access site every so often. This time they find that the highways officer commented ten days ago asking for a revised parking layout, and a neighbour has objected about overlooking. The case officer's target date is next week. There is barely time to respond.
On another application, the decision was issued three days ago and nobody noticed until the client asked.
Why live applications slip out of sight
Councils publish application documents and comments on their own public access systems, and the look and structure vary. Some send email notifications to the agent, many do not, or only for the decision. Consultee comments and neighbour representations appear without warning. Checking them all means a person visiting each site, application by application, which gets forgotten in a busy week.
- Each council's public access site is different.
- Consultee comments and objections appear without notification.
- Case officer requests may come by email to one person only.
- Target and determination dates are not tracked in one place.
- Clients learn of decisions before the practice does.
What a missed comment costs
A consultee objection that is not addressed can lead to a refusal or a request to withdraw, and a refusal means a new application or an appeal, with months added to the project. Even when things go well, responding at the last minute produces rushed amendments. And the client relationship suffers when they know more than their architect.
A tracker watching every live application
- Each application the practice submits is added with its council, reference and project, and its public access page is identified.
- The tracker checks each page on a schedule, within the site's terms of use, for new documents, consultee responses, neighbour comments and status changes.
- New items are downloaded and filed to the project, and the project architect is alerted with a short summary.
- A language model can summarise a consultee response or group neighbour comments by theme, with the original documents linked, so the architect can see quickly what needs a response.
- Target dates, extensions of time and the determination date are tracked, with warnings as they approach.
- Emails from case officers can be forwarded into the tracker so the whole correspondence sits on one timeline.
- A practice-wide board shows every live application, its status and anything awaiting a response.
How to respond to a comment is a planning and design decision for the architect and, where appointed, a planning consultant. The tracker makes sure you see comments in time to decide.
Over time the timeline for each application becomes a useful record in its own right. If an application is refused and goes to appeal, or a similar scheme is proposed nearby, the practice has every comment, officer email and amended drawing in date order, rather than scattered across inboxes and the council's website.
The practice board
| Application | Council | Status | New since last week | Target date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rear extension | Council A | Consultation | Highways comment | Approaching |
| New dwelling | Council B | Under assessment | Two objections | Extended |
| Loft conversion | Council C | Decided | Decision notice | Passed |
Illustrative layout only.
No more surprise decisions
The project architect hears about each comment within a day or so of it appearing, with the document filed and summarised. Responses are planned rather than rushed. Directors see at a glance which applications need attention this week, and clients hear about their decision from you.
Does this sound familiar?
- Someone checks council websites by hand for updates.
- Consultee comments have been found close to the target date.
- Clients have heard about a decision before you did.
- You do not have one list of live applications and their dates.