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 · County council
Explore collected planning applications and decisions for Essex County Council. Search an address, application reference or proposal to find a record.
6,825 approved · 214 refused · 438 withdrawn. Received dates in our records: 12 Dec 1938 to 5 Oct 2026. Most recent record check: 14 Oct 2026. Counts reflect the last collected status; some records may be out of date.
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.
A boundary map is not available for this authority yet. Use council conservation-area and Article 4 guidance above where linked.
Download Article 4 coverage for all authorities (CSV)
Sources: Planning Data conservation areas and Article 4 direction areas. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Woodham Walter Church of England Primary School, The Street, WOODHAM WALTER, CM9 6RF
Received 28 Feb 2017Springfield Highways Depot,Colchester Road,Chelmsford,CM2 5PU
Received 5 Dec 2005Land adjacent to Cressing Road,Faulkbourne Farm,Witham
Received 28 Nov 2006Morses Lane Ind Est.,Morses Lane Industrial Estate,Brightlingsea,CO7 0SD
Received 24 Dec 1999Sandon Quarry, Molrams Lane, Sandon, Essex, CM2 7TE
Received 18 Sept 2017Mid Essex Gravel Pits Ltd, Essex Regiment Way, Little Waltham, Chelmsford, CM3 3PZ
Received 7 Mar 2012Highwood Quarry, Stortford Road, Little Canfield, Dunmow, Essex, CM6 1SL
Received 26 Jun 2019St. Marys C Of E Foundation Primary School, Hampton Road, Stansted, CM248FE
Received 7 Feb 2014The Westerings Primary School, Sunny Road, Hawkwell, SS5 4NZ
Received 9 Feb 2018Land to the south of Buttleys Lane, Stortford Road, Great Dunmow, CM6 1SH
Received 3 Jun 2026Hatfield Heath County Primary School,Chelmsford Road,Hatfield Heath
Received 29 Oct 2008Mayntrees,55-57 New St,Chelmsford,CM1 1NE
Received 30 Aug 2000Staples Road Primary School,Staples Road,Loughton,IG10 1HR
Received 23 Oct 2002Beaulieu Park Education Campus site, Chelmsford, Beaulieu
Received 8 Sept 2017Prettygate Junior School,Plume Avenue,Colchester,CO3 4PH
Received 20 Jul 2004Bellcroft,Bellcroft,Eastways Ind. Estate,Witham
Received 2 Mar 2000Land at Colchester Quarry, Warren Lane, Stanway, Colchester, Essex, CO3 0NN
Received 18 Jul 2024Gilden Way and Sheering Road public highways and land between Sheering Road and M11 Motorway
Received 28 Feb 2018Highwood Quarry, Stortford Road, Great Dunmow, CM6 1SL
Received 17 Oct 2023Maple River Industrial Estate,Unit 7,Maple River Industrial Estate,River Way,Harlow,Essex,CM20 2DP
Received 26 Sept 2011Winsford Way, Chelmsford, CM2 5PD
Received 5 Oct 201219 Harwich Road, Ardleigh, Colchester, CO7 7LT
Received 10 Nov 2014Green Acres,Old Packards Lane,Wormingford,Colchester,CO6 3AH
Received 8 Nov 2012Tollesbury County Primary School, East Street, Tollesbury CM9 8QE
Received 16 Sept 2020Records 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 Essex 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