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 West Lancashire Borough Council. Search an address, application reference or proposal to find a record.
6,965 approved · 1,358 refused · 416 withdrawn. Received dates in our records: 23 Dec 2011 to 8 Oct 2026. Most recent record check: 12 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 Counts reflect the last collected status; some records may be out of date.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.
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.
7 Longshaw Close Rufford Ormskirk Lancashire L40 1XD
Received 4 Feb 2015Toppings Farm 20 Plox Brow Tarleton Preston Lancashire PR4 6HB
Received 27 Feb 20157 Douglas Close Rufford Ormskirk Lancashire L40 1UT
Received 9 Mar 2015Blythe House Blythe Lane Lathom Ormskirk Lancashire L40 5UA
Received 2 Mar 2015136 Prescot Road Aughton Ormskirk Lancashire L39 4SW
Received 10 Mar 2015Edge Hill University St Helens Road Ormskirk Lancashire L39 4QP
Received 10 Mar 20154 Summerwood Lane Halsall Ormskirk Lancashire L39 8RJ
Received 10 Mar 20155 The Hollies Aughton Ormskirk Lancashire L39 7LE
Received 18 Feb 20159 Forest Drive Skelmersdale Lancashire WN8 6UW
Received 6 Mar 2015Lancashire Fire And Rescue Service Fire Station Tanhouse Road Tanhouse Skelmersdale Lancashire WN8 9NN
Received 10 Mar 2015Land Between 1 And 5 The Gravel Mere Brow Tarleton Lancashire
Received 5 Mar 201586 High Street Skelmersdale Lancashire WN8 8AT
Received 9 Mar 2015Whalleys Farm Beacon Lane Newburgh Wigan Lancashire WN8 7SD
Received 6 Mar 2015Edge Hill University St Helens Road Ormskirk Lancashire L39 4QP
Received 11 Mar 201548 The Gravel Mere Brow Tarleton Preston Lancashire PR4 6JX
Received 10 Mar 2015Playing Field At The Rear Of 39 To 61 Hesketh Road Burscough Lancashire L40 7SG
Received 10 Mar 2015Store And Premises 30A Scarth Hill Lane Aughton Lancashire L39 4UH
Received 10 Mar 20151 Aughton Park Drive Aughton Lancashire L39 5QE
Received 19 Feb 20152 Chestnut Grange Ormskirk Lancashire L39 4YG
Received 18 Apr 2014Woodland Adjacent To 101 Winifred Lane Aughton Ormskirk Lancashire L39 5DH
Received 28 Nov 2014National Trust Shop Rufford Old Hall Liverpool Road Rufford Ormskirk Lancashire L40 1SG
Received 12 Jun 2014Tree Bordering Lake House Moss Lane Wrightington Wigan Lancashire WN6 9PB
Received 28 Nov 2014Former St Stephens School Hoole Lane Banks Lancashire
Received 12 Mar 2015St Richards R C Primary School Sandy Lane Skelmersdale Lancashire WN8 8LQ
Received 12 Mar 2015Records 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 West Lancashire Borough 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