Planning Appeal Search Tips

  1. Not sure what text to search for? Try "appeal" and narrow down using filters like Inspector/ Date/ Local Authority/ etc. The default date range is 5 years, which you can easily change to your own chosen dates.
  2. To include more than one search term use a + sign, for example, Leeds +commerical.
  3. To omit a search term use a - sign, for example, "wind farm" -offshore will find windfarms, but exclude documents containing the word "offshore".
  4. To find precise phrase use double inverted commas, for example, "80 dwellings". If you don't include inverted commas you'll get appeals containing both words.
  5. The search covers ALL of the Decision Notice - the headers, the text, the planning conditions, footnotes, etc - so a popular appeal reference might find 10 results if 9 cases cross-refer to it.

Advanced Searching

Special command *

A * acts as a wild card. With the * special character, it is vital to include inverted commas around your search terms. For example, "presumption against * development" will find:

- 'presumption against sustainable development' and
- 'presumption against inappropriate development' and
- 'presumption against the development' and
- 'presumption against harmful development' etc.

You can use as many * wildcards as you like. For example, the search "specialist * * housing" finds:

- 'specialist older persons housing' and
- 'specialist elderly C2 housing' and
- 'specialist and general housing' and
- 'specialist forms of housing' etc.

When using more than one * it is important to separate each * with a space. The * represents one word per asterisk and is "exact".

Special commands SENTENCE, PARAGRAPH

A more flexible search for words that occur close together are the special commands SENTENCE or PARAGRAPH (in capital letters) between the search terms. For example, noise SENTENCE nuisance finds appeals refering to:

'noise nuisance' and
'noise is at such a level as to constitute a statutory nuisance' and
'cause a nuisance to the amenity of neighbours by reason of noise', etc

Be careful with inverted commas. For example, "noise SENTENCE nuisance" will return 0 results as no Decision Notices include the word "sentence". If your search includes a phrase, for example "sustainable development" then phrase it: noise SENTENCE "sustainable development".

Special commands NEAR/x, NOTNEAR/x

To find words NEAR another word, specify the number of words you wish to include. For example, NEAR/3 is a tight search within 3 words, whereas NEAR/10 will search within 10 words. For example, "housing supply" NEAR/5 weight finds this type of result:

… housing, the contribution to housing supply carries positive weight in favour of the …
… attach very little weight to the proposal benefiting housing supply in HDC …
… would further frustrate housing supply. I therefore attach moderate weight to the proposal …

This is useful for popular terms like sustainable NEAR/4 development. For example, this will find:

… site and construction of a sustainable residential development comprising a total of …
… proposal would comprise a sustainable form of development, having particular regard to …
… . In conclusion, the development is in a sustainable location and seeks to …

Additional tips

  1. Longer phrases can help narrow the search, for example "conflicts with the development plan when read as a whole" will find appeals with that exact phrase.
  2. Sometimes it can be helpful to search for negatives, for example "no cycle provision".
  3. Always consider variations, for example "brownfield land" as well as "previously developed land".
  4. Our mapping software displays all appeals that have a postcode. The few that do not have a postcode entered by PINS cannot be displayed on the map. Advice on searches using the Appeals Map can be found on our blog here.

Troubleshooting

Zero results? Check your date range and other filters. We have 99.9% of all appeals from early 2010. If this doesn't work, see FAQs section 2 #8.

Where an appeal planning officer has assisted an Inspector, these are indexed under the Inspector's name. To find appeals by a named appeal planning officer, put their name into the Keyword search rather than into the Inspector search.

See the FAQs section 2 for Appeal Searching FAQs such as finding Welsh appeals, former LPAs, etc. See FAQs section 3 for Website Navigation FAQs for links to useful government data.