Any planning application that is not already implicit in the deeds or rights of your property (see any information you can find on PD, or Permitted Development, for more information about how certain areas of your domestic property may already be eligible for further development) requires a set of planning maps in its support. The maps are asked for in two scales, and are designed to show both the immediate area to be built on and that area in its wider context.

The purpose of the planning maps is to provide twofold support to your planning application. The map that shows the area you wish to build on is called a “Site Plan”, while the map that shows the wider area in which the site sits is referred to as a “Location Plan”.

These planning maps are required by the planning authorities of your local council. To make things confusing, though, not every local council specifies the same scale for the maps it needs. It is therefore imperative to be sure that you have arranged for a Site Plan and a Location Plan that answer the scale requirements of the council to which you are submitting your planning application.

An online planning maps service can help you with this part of the process. Online services that provide planning maps are usually preloaded with the correct scales for every county council and local planning authority in the country. So all you need to do is upload the coordinates of the location you wish to get planning permission for, and the software does the rest. It even generates hard and digital copies – and, if you apply for several planning applications as a result of your work, can give you a professional version that can be edited and stored online.

The Site Plan planning maps enable your local planning authority to examine in detail the proposed site of your building project, ensuring that your planning application is not in contravention of any by laws or national building regulations. The Location Plan then allows the planning authority to look at the wider context of your planned building, checking for example that you are not simply duplicating a building or service type that already exists within the immediate vicinity. A typical example of this may be a supermarket applying for planning permission to build next to another supermarket.

Your planning maps used to be one of the hardest parts of a planning application. With the advent of the online services mentioned above, most of the worry is taken away from you. All you have to do is remember to specify the correct co ordinates!

The speed of the service is impressive – you can often have digital copies of your planning maps with you in minutes, with hard copies following in the post. That means no more delays or hold ups to your carefully laid plans!