Planning history search

Search by address for full planning history from 1948.

Use this search to find details of the planning and building regulation applications we hold against a particular property or piece of land.

The following documents are available to view online:

  • planning decisions since May 1992

  • application forms and plans since 1 November 2005

  • comments since 1 June 2012

Documents prior to this are not available to view online.

The planning history may be incomplete and should not be relied on in connection with a property transaction. Anyone wishing to obtain planning information for this purpose should visit Local Land Charges.

Please note that there may be a delay between an application being received and being published on our website.

If you cannot find any planning history against your address

Please try searching by just the road name or postcode.  Also see planning history explained below for further information on how to search.

If your property was built after 1948 there should be a planning history.  If no results are returned contact planning@arun.gov.uk who will be able to provide you with the correct search criteria.

Other searches

If you have the planning reference or wish to search for applications between dates it is better to use the planning application search. If you wish to search for building regulations it is best to use the building regulation tracker.

You are strongly advised to check if planning obligations and conditions have been complied with on any new dwelling/development. The Planning department actively monitor condition and obligation compliance and inform the Local Land Charges team where a note needs to be recorded, however not all outstanding issues will necessarily have been identified.

Therefore, it is suggested you write to planning@arun.gov.uk to check if any or all section 106 obligations have been discharged. A search of the Local Land Charges Register may reveal clear commentary that a section 106 agreement has been fully complied with, however, it is also recommended that a full official Local Authority Search is completed to pick up any other warnings revealed on the CON29 response. Further information can be found on our Land Charges information page.

You can check yourself if planning conditions have been discharged (on applications determined after 2010) by using our planning application search. To do this you can: 

  • enter the planning application reference
  • click on ‘Other Applications on site’ to check for ‘Planning Approval of Conds’ type applications (They are suffixed with DOC (For Discharge of Conditions).

Alternatively, you may request we do the condition check for you but there is a charge for this. Please email planning@arun.gov.uk for more information.

Planning history explained

  • All planning and building regulation applications received by us since 1948 are linked to a 'site' or piece of land. If the property lies within the South Downs National Park you will need to contact them for planning history since 1 April 2012.
  • Our records only go back to 1948 and there are some properties that will not appear if no application has been made since then.
  • The way our records are held means that you get 2 options - you need to check both options to get the full planning history:
    • applications 1948 to 1987
    • applications post 1987
  • There are 3 main types of ‘site’ which link to each other:
    • Main Site (MS)
      • This would be a large site, for example a housing estate, which would show:
      • original applications (often outline planning applications) for the principle redevelopment of the land/building
      • historical applications relating to the land/building that was previously there
    • Sub Site (SS)
      • this is setup when subsequent applications are submitted, for example a phase of a big estate or a number of roads (you would normally also find the applications for the original build here too)
    • Property Site (PS)
      • this would show the applications that directly relate to the individual property, for example an extension to a house
  • All the above sites should link together if they exist. You may need to check all 3 types of site to find your planning history.
  • Application Sites (AS) are sites that are created for applications on odd pieces of land which do not have a proper address, for example garage compounds or roadside verges. They are normally standalone sites but may occasionally be linked to a Sub Site or Main Site, for example a garage compound within a housing estate.
  • Please be aware that we may hold the site details under a different description to that which you are searching, for example
    • you may know it as a house name but we may only know it under the street number
    • a site may be known as "land rear of" or there may be a house name
    • Results will not be found if the search field is not using the same site details that we hold.
  • If it’s a site denoted with (SS) and it says Sub Site under the relationship heading it means there is also a main site (MS) which you will need to search for separately in order to view original outline applications, for example:
    • if you wanted to find the original outline application for a housing estate you would need to look under the main site (MS)
    • if you were only interested in the detailed applications for the actual build of the new houses you would find these under the sub site (SS)
    • for any extensions or alterations relating specifically to the house itself you only need look under the property site (PS) for both time periods
  • The results will show on the screen. If you get a blank screen with 'no row returned' this means there are no applications relating to that particular site for that date option.
  • In some cases it may be necessary to contact the office to request a full planning history.

Contact the technical support unit

Email: planning@arun.gov.uk

Disclaimer, copyright and limitations