Think inside your AI world.
How do I get told when a planning application goes in near my house?
A planning application near you is public the day it is lodged, and the national planning data is free to read. What you actually want is narrower than the council’s weekly list: applications within a distance you care about, of a kind you care about, carrying a flag you care about. That is a rule, and the rule is yours.
The construction is the national planning data plus your own bar. Applications are published on planning.data.gov.uk, keyless; the constraint data, flood zones, conservation areas, listed buildings, is published there too and is complete. Your rule is something like “within 200 metres, and not a like-for-like extension.” Through Unl a matching application arrives beside that rule the moment your own building plans come up, stamped with when it was lodged. The coverage limit is stated plainly, because the application dataset is officially still filling in.
The person
A resident who wants to hear when something is proposed near their home, not the whole borough’s planning traffic. They have a distance in mind and a sense of what counts as worth knowing, and they do not want to trawl a portal every week to find it.
The pieces, and how far each one reaches
| Source | What it gives you | Reach today |
|---|---|---|
| planning.data.gov.uk, applications | New planning applications with their location, type and description, so a proposal near your address can be matched to your distance and type rule. | Keyless and public. Coverage is officially partial: participation by local planning authorities is not yet mandated, so how complete your authority’s applications are varies by authority. This is disclosed, not glossed over. |
| planning.data.gov.uk, constraints | Flood zones, conservation areas, listed buildings and other designations, so a flag you care about can be part of the rule. | Keyless and public, and this half of the data is complete nationally, unlike the applications half. |
| Your postcode or address point | The centre your distance rule is measured from, so 200 metres means 200 metres from your home. | Set once; keyless. |
The honesty that must travel with this construction: the planning application dataset is officially incomplete because local planning authority participation is not yet mandated, so coverage varies by authority and a quiet week may mean a quiet week or may mean your authority is not fully publishing yet. The constraint datasets are complete. Paste-time verification shows what your own authority currently returns; the page does not promise blanket coverage it cannot honour.
The rule, in their words
- “Within 200 metres of my postcode.”
- “Anything that is not a like-for-like extension: change of use, new build, demolition.”
- “Flag it if it sits in the conservation area or a flood zone.”
The distinctiveness is the compound: distance AND type AND flag, together. A council portal alert emails the whole authority’s list; a distance-only alert still buries the one that matters under a dozen loft conversions. The requirement that an application be close AND not a routine extension AND carry a designation is the rule no broadcast list holds for you.
Unprompted
Your AI
While that is in mind, one nearby crosses the rule you set: within 200 metres, and not a like-for-like extension. An application 140 metres away was lodged three days ago, listed as a change of use rather than a householder extension, and it sits inside the conservation area, which is one of your flags.
That is from the national planning data. A fair warning travels with it: the applications dataset is officially incomplete because authority participation is not yet mandated, so treat a silent week as maybe silent, not certainly.
The application arrived against the resident’s own three-part rule, with the coverage caveat attached rather than hidden. Whether it matters to them is theirs to weigh.
Why this beats the dashboard
A council alert broadcasts the whole authority’s weekly list; a portal subscription emails you everything within a radius and nothing about type or designation. Your rule is all three at once, and it surfaces only when your own plans are the subject. The reading is measured against your bar before you ever see it, and it carries its own honesty about what the data does and does not cover.
Being told when a planning application goes in near your house is the public planning data measured against your own bar; through Unl an application matching it lands beside “within 200 metres, not a like-for-like extension, flag the conservation area”, stamped with when it was lodged and honest about the dataset’s partial coverage, and the judging is your bar alone.
Reads through Unl arrive with measured context — in the presence of the decisions you’ve already settled. The reach lane is live: one box, paste anything. If it speaks MCP, Unl can reach it. Readings arrive unprompted, the data beside the criterion; Unl is a courier, not a warehouse, and keeps only your keys and the frame.
Read further
Questions people ask
Is the planning data actually complete?
No, and this page will not pretend otherwise. The constraint datasets, flood zones, conservation areas, listed buildings, are complete nationally. The planning applications dataset is officially incomplete because local planning authority participation is not yet mandated, so coverage varies by authority. A quiet week may be genuinely quiet or may mean your authority is not fully publishing yet; paste-time verification shows what your own authority currently returns.
Does Unl tell me whether to object?
No. Unl brings the matching application beside the rule you set, within a distance, of a type, carrying a flag, stamped with when it was lodged, and stops there. Whether the proposal matters to you, and whether you act on it, is entirely yours; Unl does not advise, rank or recommend.
How is this different from a council alert?
A council alert broadcasts the authority’s whole list, and a portal radius alert still ignores type and designation. Your rule is compound, close AND not a routine extension AND carrying a flag, and it surfaces in the moment your own building plans come up rather than as a weekly email you learn to skim past.
What this is
Think inside your AI world — you stay in command
Unlimitless (Unl to friends) holds what you've settled, reads what your tools are showing, and catches what's changed out in the world — and hands your AI whatever bears on the work, the moment it's needed, without you asking. The right thing, in front of the model, unprompted, with you in command of the call. So you keep moving toward what you set out to build, on top of everything you've already decided.
It plugs into Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT and Cursor as an MCP connector. Quick to connect, in a couple of steps.
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