What are Planning Alerts?
Planning Alerts notify you about new planning activity on a specific saved site, often within 24 hours of a new application being published. They are set up individually for each saved site, giving you precise control over what you monitor and how often you are notified.
Unlike Planning Search Alerts, which run a broad keyword search across any area, Planning Alerts are site-specific: they watch a defined boundary and alert you to anything that happens within it.
What Planning Alerts can help you do
React quickly to new applications submitted on a site you are pursuing
Find out about approvals or refusals as soon as they are published
Track changes in use class on sites in your pipeline
Monitor competitor activity around a priority location
How to set up a Planning Alert
Go to Home (top left corner of your screen)
Click Alerts
Select Saved Site Alerts
Find the site you want to monitor and click Go to site
From the site card, select Planning Alerts
Click Create new alert
Give the alert a name
Edit your boundary if needed (you can expand or adjust the monitored area)
Add optional Search Terms to filter the activity you are alerted to (for example: 'approved', 'residential', or 'refused')
Choose your preferred frequency: daily or weekly
Click Save
You can set up multiple alerts per site with different search terms or boundaries if you want to monitor different types of activity separately.
Search Terms
Search Terms are optional keywords that filter which planning applications trigger your alert. If you leave Search Terms blank, you will be notified about all new planning activity within your boundary.
Adding Search Terms helps you focus on what matters. For example:
'Approved' to track decision outcomes
'Residential' to follow housing-related applications
'Refused' to spot sites with planning challenges
An applicant's name to track a specific developer's activity
Search Terms use an AND search. If you enter more than one term, the alert will only fire for applications that include all of your specified keywords.
💡LandTech Tip: Use Search Terms to cut through the noise. If you are only interested in decision outcomes, terms like 'Approved' or 'Refused' keep your alerts focused and actionable.
How and when you'll be notified
Planning Alerts are delivered by email, either daily or weekly depending on your chosen frequency. When a new planning application is published within your alert boundary that matches your Search Terms, you will receive a notification with a summary of the application and a link to view it in LandInsight.
Alerts typically fire within 24 hours of a matching application being published by the relevant local authority.
Managing your Planning Alerts
Go to Home and click Alerts
Select Saved Site Alerts to see all sites with alerts configured
Click into a site to view, edit, pause, or delete individual alerts
Toggle alerts on or off without deleting them if you want to pause monitoring temporarily
Planning Alerts vs Planning Search Alerts: what is the difference?
These are two separate alert tools designed for different purposes.
| Planning Alerts | Planning Search Alerts |
What they monitor | Planning activity on a specific saved site | New applications matching a keyword search across any area |
Where they are set up | Home > Alerts > Saved Site Alerts | Planning Search tool (The Explorer) |
Scope | Narrow: one specific site boundary | Broad: a whole map view, council area, or drawn polygon |
Best for | Monitoring a priority site you are actively pursuing | Tracking trends, competitors, or application types across a region |
Frequency | Daily or weekly | Daily or weekly |
Use Planning Alerts when a specific site matters enough to monitor closely. Use Planning Search Alerts to stay informed at scale.
Plan availability
Planning Alerts are available on all LandInsight plans.
Plan | Planning Alerts |
Starter | Included |
Pro | Included |
Unlimited | Included |
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