Planning Application Alerts

London planning applications on your street, sent to your phone.

com.ibrahimtxy.ukplanning · Books & Reference

Planning applications are public once they are validated, but hearing about one means running a planning application search on a council portal and remembering to do it again. This app watches the London Planning Datahub for you — London only.

This app never signs in, never comments on or objects to an application and never asks for personal details. It reads the public application list, tells you when one matches your watch, and links you to the council's own page when the source carries that link.

Get it on Google Play

What it does

Planning application notifications on your phone, with no e-mail sign-up: checks run every 6 to 24 hours, and Check now shows the last four days at any time
Narrow to a postcode district such as NW3, so the alerts are about your street, not the whole borough
Add a phrase - loft conversion, basement, demolition - and the source filters on it before anything is downloaded
Planning permission alerts too: follow the decision and hear when one is granted or refused
Every alert shows the status as the Datahub lists it - Approved, Refused, Application Received - with the address, the description, the reference and the council's own page when there is one
No map: one authority and one postcode district are enough

How you set it up

You create one watch — for example “Camden, NW3, loft conversion” — and close the app. At the interval you choose it checks newly validated London planning applications; when an application matching your watch appears your phone gets a notification. It never tells you about the same thing twice.

Who it is for

Neighbours, leaseholders, builders and agents following a London planning application while it is still open.

What it does not do

It does NOT comment on an application, does not object and does not support one. It points you at the council's page; you act there yourself.
It does NOT sign in and never asks for personal details.
It asks for no account. No sign-up, no password.
The developer collects no personal data and adds no analytics or crash reporting. In the free version the Google Mobile Ads SDK collects IP address, app interactions, diagnostics and device IDs (see Data safety).
The free tier shows Google AdMob ads: a bottom banner, rewarded ads you start yourself and an “Ad”-labelled card inside the list; no full-screen ads between pages or on launch. Paid members see no ads and no ad request is made.

Version history

0.6.0 (2026-10-21)

Your membership is now checked with Google Play every time you open the app, so ad-free use starts or ends without opening Settings.
Membership plans that are not on sale in Google Play are no longer offered.

0.5.0 (2026-10-09)

New watches get their first check without waiting for the next round; the daily data estimate is no longer too low.
Free watches full? An optional rewarded ad adds 2 more watches for 24 hours.

0.4.0 (2026-10-02)

Every alert and result card now shows the application's status as the source writes it (Approved, Refused, Application Received and so on), so a decision alert tells you whether permission was granted or refused.
On busy councils a decision watch now reads the last four days in one go: no decision is counted twice or skipped, and a window that fits no longer claims part of it went unread.

0.3.0 (2026-09-30)

First release: an alert when a new application appears in the London planning authority and postcode district you pick.
Each alert opens the council's own planning page, or that application's record in the Planning London Datahub when the council gives no page.
Ads in the free tier (banner, full-screen, rewarded, native); paid members see none.

Permissions

Permission	Why
`ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE`	To avoid pointless attempts while offline, and to tell mobile data from Wi-Fi.
`INTERNET`	To reach the public London planning application list.
`POST_NOTIFICATIONS`	To tell you a matching planning application appeared. That is the whole app.
`READ_BASIC_PHONE_STATE`	So the ads library can tell Wi-Fi from mobile data. It grants no access to your phone number, IMEI or call log; the app does not declare it, the ads library adds it.
`RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED`	So your watches resume after the phone restarts.
`VIBRATE`	To vibrate when a notification arrives.
`WAKE_LOCK`	So the phone does not fall asleep in the middle of a check. The app does not ask for this itself; the background work library (Android Jetpack WorkManager) adds it.
`BILLING`	So you can buy a paid membership through Google Play. The app does not declare this permission itself; the Google Play Billing library adds it. Your payment details (card, address, invoice) never reach the app and are never seen or stored by it — Google Play takes the payment. All the app learns is whether your membership is active.
`AD_ID`	Ads in the free tier are served by Google AdMob, which may read the device advertising ID (AAID). The app does not declare this permission itself; the ads library adds it. Paid members make no ad request at all. You can reset or delete the ID in Settings › Google › Ads.

Source

Where the data comes from: the Planning London Datahub, the Greater London Authority's open planning index: https://planningdata.london.gov.uk/api-guest/applications/_search

Planning Application Alerts is an independent app. It is not developed, endorsed or supported by the Greater London Authority or any London council.