Last updated: 23 July 2026
PlanningLens is operated by PlanningLens Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17341886), with its registered office at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ. PlanningLens Ltd is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under registration reference ZC199303.
When we refer to "we", "us", or "our" in this policy, we mean PlanningLens Ltd.
PlanningLens aggregates and analyses planning application data drawn from the statutory public registers that local planning authorities are required by law to maintain and publish. This data underpins the statistics, rankings, and research we publish.
Our public pages present planning application details as published by the determining council — application reference, description, site address, decision, and dates. We do not publish separate applicant name fields on our public statistical pages. Planning records also include the details of professional agents — such as planning consultants and architects — acting in a business capacity on applications; we process these professional details as published in the statutory registers. Where a council has included personal details within its own application description, those details may appear verbatim in the record as we display it.
Our lawful basis for this processing is legitimate interests: supporting transparency and public accountability in the planning system, the same purpose the statutory registers themselves serve.
If you are named or otherwise identifiable in a planning record we display and you object to its publication on our site, contact us at the address below. We will assess your objection promptly in accordance with your rights under UK data protection law.
When you use our free analysis tool, we collect the postcode and application type you enter. We do not require an account or login to use the free tool.
When you sign up for email notifications or join a waitlist, we collect your email address and postcode.
When you request a free property report, we collect your email address and the property address needed to generate and deliver it. When you purchase a paid product — such as an evidence pack, a refusal alerts subscription, or API access — we collect your email address and the details needed to deliver that product. Where payments are taken online, payment details are collected and processed by our payment provider, Stripe — we do not store your card details.
We collect basic, anonymous usage statistics through Plausible Analytics (see Cookies and analytics below). We do not use this data to identify you.
We use postcode and application data solely to generate your planning analysis. We use your email address to deliver your reports and purchased products, notify you when your area becomes available, or send service-related communications. We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes.
Our lawful bases are: performance of a contract (delivering products you purchase), consent (email notifications and waitlists, which you can withdraw at any time by unsubscribing), and legitimate interests (operating and improving the service, and publishing planning-register data as described above).
We use essential cookies only where needed for the site to function correctly. For analytics we use Plausible, a privacy-focused analytics service which does not use cookies and does not collect or store personal data; it provides us with aggregate statistics only.
Postcode lookups on PlanningLens use postcodes.io, an open third-party postcode lookup service. Depending on the tool you are using, the lookup may be made directly from your browser or via our servers. Only the postcode itself is sent for lookup — no other information about you accompanies it.
Email addresses collected for notifications are retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion. Search queries entered into the free tool are not stored against your identity.
Details associated with report requests and purchased products (your email address and, where applicable, the property address in a report) are retained to support re-delivery, customer service, and our accounting and legal obligations, and are deleted on request where no such obligation requires us to keep them.
Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR), you have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal data. You may also object to processing, restrict processing, or request data portability. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the email address below.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk. We would appreciate the chance to address your concerns first, but you may contact the ICO at any time.
We use the following third-party services to operate PlanningLens:
Netlify — website hosting. Netlify Privacy Policy
Railway — hosting for our application backend, which processes report requests. Railway Privacy Policy
Resend — email delivery for reports and notifications. Resend Privacy Policy
Stripe — payment processing. Stripe Privacy Policy
Plausible — privacy-focused, cookieless website analytics, hosted in the EU. Plausible Privacy Policy
Google Forms — email collection for waitlists and notifications. Google Privacy Policy
postcodes.io — open postcode lookup service. About postcodes.io
Each service handles data in accordance with its own privacy policy.
We may update this policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated date.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or your personal data, please contact us at hello@planninglens.co.uk.