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Important changes to planning, land charges and mapping services

Updated Monday 1 June 2026

Planning system now available:

The downtime for the council’s planning system is now over and the new system is available. You can access support on the new system on our FAQ page.

Land Charges will launch in mid-June and the new mapping system will follow in the coming weeks – we will update this page and promote the launch on our other communication channels.

What has been happening?

During April we have been updating the software behind our Planning and Land Charges services along with the council’s mapping (GIS) system. These changes ensure these systems remains reliable, supported, and able to meet future service needs. Moving to a new system is a significant step; we appreciate that the change in layout and functionality may feel different at first. 

Support resources

We have provided step‑by‑step videos demonstrating the new planning system and showing how to complete key tasks. We also have an FAQ:

Council Planning Alert System:

Everyone currently signed up to the council’s planning alert system will now need to re-register. We will email all existing subscribers to let them know when re‑registration is open and provide instructions on what to do next.

Planning applications:  

During the downtime, we continued processing planning applications. However, we were unable to register applications, carry out consultations, or issue decisions. As a result, now the system is live there will be a period where we are catching up. Please bear with us as the process will take slightly longer than normal.

Land Charges: 

We will be unable to process Local Land Charges search requests until the system launches.

The implementation of our new software for carrying out Land Charges searches is taking slightly longer than previously anticipated.

While we are making good progress, additional time is required to ensure the system is fully tested and operates reliably before it is brought into service. As a result, we are currently unable to resume normal Land Charges search functions.

We are expecting to start accepting searches later in June.

There will be a delay in processing of searches because of the system downtime beyond the normal eight-day turnaround period and we anticipate the timeframe to return searches will be around 20 days from the date of acceptance.

We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience during this changeover period.

Mapping system

We will launch a new mapping system in the coming weeks.

  • Users will be able to access the new system via the following link once it goes live: maps.southandvale.gov.uk
  • The current mapping system was last updated on Friday 10 April. During the system changeover, the maps will remain available, but no updates will be made.
  • Once live, the new mapping system will again display current and fully up‑to‑date information and should be used as the primary source for mapping and location‑based data.