Understanding planning · 13 min read
Planning application documents: what to read first
Understand planning application documents, officer reports and decision notices. Use a reading checklist, document table and worked example to inspect a case.
England · Local authority
Explore collected planning applications and decisions for Durham County Council. Search an address, application reference or proposal to find a record.
12,365 approved · 677 refused · 729 withdrawn. Received dates in our records: 23 Oct 2012 to 15 Oct 2026. Most recent record check: 19 Oct 2026. Counts reflect the last collected status; some records may be out of date.
Contact details were found on council pages. Check the source for opening hours and which enquiries the service handles.
Explore published planning boundaries and follow their source records for designation details. Coverage varies: an empty map does not mean there are no restrictions. Check the council’s current maps and documents before relying on a boundary.
Interactive planning map loads with JavaScript. Dataset sources are linked below.
Download Article 4 coverage for all authorities (CSV)
Data downloaded 14 Sept 2026. Display boundaries are simplified and indicative. Map record counts are not a complete count of designations or directions.
Sources: Planning Data conservation areas and Article 4 direction areas. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Land North Of Wayside Low Lane Witton-le-wear DL14 0AJ
Received 21 Jul 2026Morton Cottage Fence Houses Houghton-le-Spring DH4 6QA
Received 21 Jul 202661 Camperdown Avenue Chester-le-street Chester-le-Street DH3 4AD
Received 21 Jul 2026Shop At 7 Seaton Lane Seaham SR7 0JL
Received 23 Jul 2026Shop At 7 Seaton Lane Seaham SR7 0JL
Received 23 Jul 202612 Cheapside Spennymoor DL16 6DJ
Received 23 Jul 202612 Cheapside Spennymoor DL16 6DJ
Received 23 Jul 2026Land To The South East Of Unit 2 Howletch Lane Peterlee SR8 2BL
Received 23 Jul 2026Signal Box Heighington Railway Station Heighington Lane Aycliffe Business Park Newton Aycliffe DL5 6QG
Received 23 Jul 2026High Green Farm Binchester Bishop Auckland DL14 8AU
Received 23 Jul 2026Land To The Rear Of 3-4 Evergreen Park Crimdon TS27 4DW
Received 20 Jul 2026Rose Hall Lydia Street Willington Crook DL15 0AE
Received 24 Jul 202617 Ashbrook Close Brandon Durham DH7 8TE
Received 22 Jul 2026The Smithy Lartington Barnard Castle DL12 9BP
Received 24 Jul 2026Unit 3 Harvey Way Integra 61 West Bowburn DH6 5FR
Received 24 Jul 2026Littletown Farm Littletown Durham DH6 1AJ
Received 24 Jul 2026Land South East Of (Rear Of St Philips Close) William Street Auckland Park DL14 8RJ
Received 24 Jul 2026The Old Vicarage Kingsway Bishop Auckland DL14 7JN
Received 24 Jul 2026The Gables Main Road Gainford Darlington DL2 3DY
Received 24 Jul 2026Land East And North Of Malvern Crescent Seaham SR7 8AU
Received 24 Jul 202640 Esh Hillside Langley Park Durham DH7 9TG
Received 22 Jun 2026Cumbria Lodge Cumbria Place Bishop Auckland DL14 6TJ
Received 27 Jul 2026Glengarth 6 Station Road West Rainton Houghton-Le-Spring DH4 6SE
Received 27 Jul 2026Site Of Former Go North East Bus Garage Picktree Lane Picktree DH3 3SW
Received 27 Jul 2026Records are ordered by application ID, not submission date. Use search to find a particular address or proposal.
View all applicationsStart with the address or application reference. Open a record to read the proposal, dates and available documents, then check the official register for the latest plans and consultation details. If nothing appears, check coverage before treating the result as a complete planning history.
How to search planning applications
Understanding planning · 13 min read
Understand planning application documents, officer reports and decision notices. Use a reading checklist, document table and worked example to inspect a case.

Understanding planning · 13 min read
Read planning drawings, floor plans, elevations and sections. Use labelled diagrams, a drawing comparison table and revision checks to understand a proposal.

Property research · 13 min read
Understand planning approval rates with an interactive calculator, worked examples and comparison table. Check sample sizes, outcomes and coverage before comparing.
These figures describe applications collected by PlanningTrack for Durham County Council, across all dates currently available. They are a partial dataset, rather than an authority-wide performance measure. The date range does not establish continuous historical coverage.
The approval percentage is approved records divided by approved plus refused records. Pending, withdrawn and unknown outcomes are excluded. No percentage is shown until there is an approved or refused record.
Check collection coverage