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Frequently Asked Questions

Each day our system is updated with the latest planning applications from each planning authority.

When new applications fall within your selected alert area, you will receive a notification email with details of these new planning applications.

Our free alert service covers all planning applications within ¼ mile of your chosen postcode.

For larger alert areas, we apply a small monthly charge to cover the increased cost of this larger data request.

Our aim is always to keep our costs as low as possible. For example: a 1 mile radius costs £1 / month.

Stripe is our payment provider. They manage all subscription payments.

Stripe accepts most major payment methods, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay etc..

Find out more about Stripe

Please contact us if you wish to use a different payment method. For example: Paypal, Bank transfer or Bitcoin.

You can cancel an alert subscription any time you wish from your Dashboard page.

If a payment subscription is setup, the subscription will also be cancelled at the same time.

At present each account (email address) is limited to one alert subscription only.

You can cancel and recreate a different alert as many times as you wish.

Or, alternatively you can increase the area that you wish the alert subscription to cover.

Our aim is to cover the whole of the UK, at present the Planning Alerts service covers 241 planning authorities. We are adding new additions each week. You can see which Planning Authorities we cover here

In England the local planning authorities are 32 London borough councils, 36 metropolitan borough councils, 201 non-metropolitan district councils, 27 non-metropolitan county council, 55 unitary authority councils, the City of London Corporation, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, 10 national parks authorities including the Broads Authority, and 2 mayoral development corporations (the London Legacy Development Corporation and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation).

Make sure you have whitelisted the following email address: [email protected]. This is the email address that sends the Planning Alert emails.

Whitelisting means adding this email address to your Contacts list. Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! and other providers all work hard to ensure that their email program spam filters don’t catch emails that come from people in your contacts. These companies (rightly) assume that if an email is from someone in your contacts, it’s not spam.

The way to object to the Council about a planning application is to write to the Planning Department, either by post or by e-mail (possibly using the comments facility on the Council’s website). You should quote the planning application number (shown on the Application page of this website or on the Council’s website) and send the letter to the address shown in the consultation letter or on the website.

Your objection will have more effect if a number of people write in to object, but do not be tempted to organise a petition; it will not carry any weight and is a waste of time. Also avoid using a ‘standard’ letter. Objectors should use their own words and write, type or word process their letters themselves. Objections will not carry the same weight if they are seen to have been written or produced in a standardised form.

Councils always request comments within a time limit (usually within 21 days of notification), but in practice they will take into account any representations received before the application is actually determined. So it is not too late to comment provided a planning permission has not actually been issued. On the other hand, it is obviously best to make your views known as early as possible.

There is no restriction on what you can say about a planning application, but your Council will not publish or take account of any material which they think is libellous, racist or offensive. There is no point in putting things in your letter which are not relevant to planning, because by law the Council can only take into account the planning issues and must not allow themselves to be influenced by other considerations unless they really are relevant to planning.

It therefore makes sense when objecting to a planning application to concentrate on those aspects of a development which are likely to be unacceptable in terms of their visual impact, effect on the character of a neighbourhood, possible noise and disturbance, overlooking and loss of privacy. The likely effect of the development on the residential amenity of neighbours is clearly an important consideration. On the other hand, a possibly adverse impact on property values is not a relevant planning consideration, and so there is no point in mentioning it.

This is something we are considering as a future feature to develop.

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