Planning Register: What Councils Must Publish

 

A council planning website is not just a convenient place to look at drawings. The planning register is part of the statutory decision-making system, and some documents have to be available before an application is decided.

That distinction matters. If the public can only see an important document after permission has been granted, the opportunity to understand it and make representations may already have gone.

This page explains the planning register in England, what should be available while an application is live, why a proposed Section 106 Agreement can matter before the decision, and how background papers fit into the picture.

 

What is the planning register?

 

Section 69 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires local planning authorities to keep a register containing prescribed information about planning applications and decisions. For England, the detail is mainly found in Article 40 of the Development Management Procedure (England) Order 2015.

The exact presentation varies between councils. Some have excellent public portals, others are harder to navigate, but the statutory duty does not disappear because the website is awkward.

For an application that has not yet been finally disposed of, the register is intended to let the public see the application and the material which the legislation requires to be available while the decision is still live.

 

What should be available before a decision?

 

The register requirements are detailed and have been amended over time, so always check the current wording of Article 40 for the application you are dealing with. In practical terms, the live register normally includes the application itself and the plans and drawings submitted with it, together with other prescribed information and documents.

One category deserves special attention: a planning obligation or section 278 agreement which is proposed to be entered into, or has already been entered into, in connection with the application.

This is separate from the wider question of what a council chooses to upload as good administration. A portal may contain consultation responses, amended drawings, officer correspondence and other material which is helpful to see, but not every document passing through a planning department is automatically a statutory register document.

 

A proposed Section 106 Agreement may need to be public before permission

 

The Court of Appeal dealt with the purpose of the register in R (Greenfields (IOW) Limited) v Isle of Wight Council and Westridge Village Limited [2025] EWCA Civ 488. The register is not simply an archive assembled once everything is over. Publication allows people to know what is proposed and, where appropriate, comment before the application is finally disposed of.

That point became decisive in R (Chidswell Action Group) v Kirklees Council [2025] EWHC 2256 (Admin). Heads of terms had been published, but the proposed Section 106 Agreement itself had not been placed on the register before permission was granted. The High Court held that the statutory duty had been breached and the planning permission was quashed.

Heads of terms are useful, but they are not necessarily the same thing as the obligation which is actually proposed to be entered into. The detail of definitions, triggers, covenants, indexation, review mechanisms and land affected can matter.

That does not mean every tracked-change version passed between solicitors must automatically become a separate public document. The question is whether the register contains the planning obligation which is genuinely proposed to be entered into, in time for the public to understand what is being secured before the decision is made.

For more on the agreement itself, see our guide to Section 106 Agreements.

 

What about background papers for a committee?

 

Background papers are a related but legally separate issue. Section 100D of the Local Government Act 1972 deals with documents which form the background to certain local authority reports.

A useful illustration is R (Wild Justice) v Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority [2025] EWHC 2249 (Admin). The planning application was in Wales, but the court’s discussion of section 100D is useful more generally. A draft Natural Resources Wales report was a background paper because important parts of the committee advice were based on it and it had been relied on to a material extent.

The test is not whether an officer has merely seen a document. Nor does every email, marked-up draft or internal working paper become a background paper. The question is whether the report, or an important part of it, is based on facts or matters in that document and whether the document has been relied on to a material extent, subject to the statutory exemptions.

Our guide to planning officer reports looks at this from the committee and decision-making side.

 

What if something important is missing?

 

If an application is still undecided, raise the issue with the case officer or planning team promptly and identify the document and the statutory basis on which you say it should be available. If the missing material may affect representations, say that clearly and ask the authority not to determine the application until the position has been resolved.

If permission has already been granted, a missing document does not automatically mean the permission is void. A legal challenge will depend on the duty breached, the facts, prejudice and the court’s approach to relief. Judicial review also runs to a very short timetable, normally six weeks for a planning permission challenge.

See our guide to judicial review in planning if a decision has already been issued.

 

Planning register checklist

 

• Check the council’s live planning register, not just a committee agenda pack
• Look at the current version of Article 40 rather than an old summary
• Check whether the plans and drawings being determined are actually available
• If a Section 106 Agreement is material, check whether the proposed obligation itself is on the register before the decision
• Do not assume heads of terms always substitute for the proposed deed
• Keep the planning-register duty separate from the background-paper rules
• Raise omissions before determination wherever possible

 

Relevant legislation and cases

 

• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 69
• Development Management Procedure (England) Order 2015, Article 40
• Local Government Act 1972, section 100D
• Greenfields [2025] EWCA Civ 488
• Chidswell Action Group [2025] EWHC 2256 (Admin)
• Wild Justice [2025] EWHC 2249 (Admin)

Other Planning Application Sections

 

Planning Register Page Created: 27th August 2026