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
PlanningTrack collects planning applications and decisions from the public planning register of Manchester City Council. Search an address, application reference or proposal. Official Manchester website
32,316 approved · 3,534 refused · 2,374 withdrawn. Most recent record check: 4 Nov 2026. Counts reflect the last collected status; some records may be out of date.
We haven’t verified direct planning guidance links for this authority yet. Use its official website in Council sources.
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)
Council-wide HMO scope — Manchester City Council · checked 14 Sept 2026 · Outline geometry: Open Government Licence v3.0.
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.
John Owens Building Brunswick Street Manchester M13 9NR
Received Not publishedManchester University Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL
Received Not publishedSunlight House Quay Street Manchester M3 3JZ
Received Not published95-97 Northmoor Road Manchester M12 5RT
Received Not publishedFormer London Road Fire Station London Road Manchester M1 2PH
Received Not published5 Exchange Street Manchester M2 7EE
Received Not publishedKfc Ltd Monarch Leisure Park Lloyd Road Manchester M19 2RE
Received Not published100 Barbirolli Square Manchester M2 3AB
Received Not publishedPalace Theatre Oxford Street Manchester M1 6FT
Received Not publishedRoyal Exchange Unit 2 Cross Street Manchester M1 1PT
Received Not published2A Victoria Square Oldham Road Manchester M4 5DX
Received Not publishedGarage Adjacent To Manchester Hall 36 Bridge Street Manchester M3 3BT
Received Not publishedPavement Adjacent To 188-192 Deansgate Manchester M3 3ND
Received Not publishedBritannia Bloom Street Car Park Manchester M1 3HS
Received Not publishedMcdonalds Restaurants Ltd 413 Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PG
Received Not publishedTown Hall Albert Square Manchester M2 5DB
Received Not publishedOpera House Quay Street Manchester M3 3HP
Received Not publishedPavement In Front Of 1 Victoria Avenue Blackley Manchester M9 6RA
Received Not published11 - 13 Piccadilly Manchester M1 1LY
Received Not publishedSurface Car Park Bound By Ducie Street To The South / Rochdale Canal To The North And West & The Remainder Of The Car Park Manchester
Received Not publishedWetherspoons 49 Piccadilly Manchester M1 2AP
Received Not publishedThe Place Ducie Street Manchester M1 2TP
Received Not publishedQueens Chambers 5 John Dalton Street Manchester M2 6ET
Received Not publishedBand On The Wall 25 - 27 Swan Street Manchester M4 5JZ
Received Not publishedRecords are ordered by application ID, not submission date. Use search to find a particular address or proposal.
View all applicationsArea alerts send a daily or weekly email with new applications and decisions near a postcode, filtered by project type. £29 a month, up to 3 areas. Records are limited to the councils we collect.
Set up an area alertStart 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 Manchester City 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