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6,825 approved · 214 refused · 438 withdrawn.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 12 Oct 2026. Most recent record check: 16 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 Counts reflect the last collected status; some records may be out of date.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.
Hastingwood Highway Depot,London Road,Hastingwood,Harlow,CM17 9LU
Received 9 Aug 2010Bulls Lodge Quarry,Generals Lane,Boreham,Chelmsford,CM3 3HR
Received 10 Jul 2003Little Chesterford Bridge,High Street,Little Chesterford,Saffron Walden
Received 5 Apr 2006Elsenham Quarry,Hall Rd,Elsenham,Bishops Stortford,CM22 6DJ
Received 2 Apr 2001Grove Wood Primary School,Grove Road,Rayleigh,SS6 8UA
Received 9 Nov 2009Gilden Way and Sheering Road public highways and land between Sheering Road and M11 Motorway
Received 3 Mar 2020Land at Sheepcotes Farm, Sheepcotes Lane, Little Waltham, CM3 3LU
Received 27 Jan 2021Danbury Outdoors, Well Lane, Danbury, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 4AB
Received 15 Feb 2024Plots G4 & G6 Purdeys Way Ind Est, Rochford,Purdeys Industrial Estate,Purdeys Way,Rochford
Received 27 Jan 2003Kavanaghs Yard (formerly Toys Yard),17 Archers Field,Burnt Mills Ind Est,Basildon
Received 3 Feb 2004Pitsea Waste Management Site,Pitsea Landfill site,Pitsea Hall Lane,Pitsea,Basildon, SS16 4UH
Received 14 Oct 1996Barling Marsh Quarry & Landfill, Mucking Hall Road, Barling Magna, SS3 0NR
Received 25 Oct 2023Fairview CSS (CSS South Quadrant), Fairview Road, Basildon, Essex, SS14 1PW
Received 25 Nov 2021Russell Green Reservoir,Drakes Farm,Boreham,Chelmsford,CM3 3BD
Received 3 Aug 1994Boyles Court Estate,Tylers Common,Brentwood,RM14 1TS
Received 2 May 1995Biogen Ongar Composting, Ashlyns Farm, Epping Road, Ongar, Essex, CM16 6RZ
Received 11 Dec 2020Stanway Primary School, Colchester, CO3 0RH
Received 30 Apr 2018Lark Hill Farm,Railway Cutting,Great Yeldham,Halstead
Received 31 Jan 1990Stanway Primary School, Colchester, CO3 0RH
Received 1 Jun 2017Belsteads Farm,Essex Regiment Way,Broomfield,Chelmsford,CM3 3PR
Received 6 Oct 1994Pond Hall,Bradfield Road,Wix,Manningtree
Received 19 Aug 2002The Plume School, Fambridge Road, Maldon, Essex, CM9 6AB
Received 14 Jul 2025Land to the rear of the Ambulance Station,Chelmsford Road,Dunmow,CM6 1LW
Received 23 Dec 2009St Mary's C of E County Primary School,Docwra Road,Kelvedon,Colchester,CO5 9DS
Received 14 Jul 1998Records 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
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Understand planning application documents, officer reports and decision notices. Use a reading checklist, document table and worked example to inspect a case.

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

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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