Modernising Site Assessment at Northumberland County Council

I was recently joined by David Hall, Planning Policy Officer at Northumberland County Council, to discuss how the team is taking a more structured and efficient approach to site assessments using Objective Keyplan. 

In the session, we explored how planning teams can: 

• Import and manage all site data in a single spatial format, including both structured and unstructured information
• Maintain a consistent, GIS-connected dataset with custom views and spatial queries in one system
• Quickly review and act on sites, with clear visibility of flagged or approved sites and simple workflows for ongoing assessment  

The discussion provided a practical insight into how local authorities can modernise site assessment processes while reducing manual work, improving transparency and creating a more robust evidence base for plan making. 

Moving Beyond Fragmented Planning Systems 

Following adoption of its current local plan in 2022, Northumberland County Council has begun work on a new local plan in response to changing national planning policy and significantly increased housing requirements. 

One of the challenges identified by the council was the fragmented nature of its existing evidence base. Site data was spread across multiple systems including GIS, Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, PDFs, and historic paper records. This duplication created inefficiencies, increased manual work, and introduced opportunities for human error. 

David Hall explained that the council wanted to move towards: 

• A fully evidenced and auditable decision-making process
• A single source of truth for site assessment data
• Reduced manual processing
• Better integration between planning and GIS systems
• A combined approach to residential and employment site assessments  

“We wanted a fully evidenced, auditable decision-making process to support an emerging plan and to streamline the assessment process, really to remove those onerous manual tasks wherever possible” 

 Digitising the Call for Sites Process 

The first stage of the transformation focused on modernising the council’s call for sites process. 

Using Objective Keyplan alongside Esri’s Survey123, the team created a digital submission form that allowed consultees to: 

• Submit site information online
• Draw site boundaries directly on an interactive map
• Upload supporting documents
• Complete dynamic forms with conditional logic questions  

The form contained around 100 questions, but intelligent logic meant users only saw relevant sections based on their responses. 

Importantly, the interactive mapping tool allowed submitted polygons to link directly with the consultation response using a unique submission ID. This ensured all spatial and textual information stayed connected within one system. 

Significant Time Savings Through GIS Integration 

Historically, officers had spent weeks manually redrawing submitted site boundaries from paper plans and PDFs. 

“In past consultations, what has normally happened is that we have got a lot of mainly paper plans, or even if it's a PDF plan, which is coming by email, we'll have spent extensive amounts of officer time drawing those sites, especially larger ones. I mean, I can think back to the last call for sites consultation and we kind of spent weeks of officer time drawing sites.” 

The new digital process dramatically reduced this burden. 

Northumberland County Council reported a 97–98% success rate for correctly submitted [polygons] sites, meaning only a handful of submissions required manual correction. 

In total, the council captured: 

• Approximately 650 sites submitted directly through the portal
• Around 100 internally identified council sites
• A further 450 sites from existing evidence bases  

This created a combined database of roughly 1,200 sites ready for assessment.  

“In the past, we’ve spent weeks of officer time drawing sites. Objective Keyplan has hugely cut down on that workload. Over 90% of the sites submitted did not require any further interaction.” 

Creating a Centralised Site Library 

One of the key outcomes of the project was the development of a centralised “site library” within Objective Keyplan. 

“We’ve now got everything in one place - all of the site assessment information rather than dealing with it from lots of different sources of data, again that saved masses of officer time.” 

Each site record now contains: 

• Spatial GIS data
• Call for sites submissions
• Supporting documents
• Historical references
• Assessment data
• Constraint analysis
• Workflow status tracking  

The system also supports overlapping submissions and multiple representations for the same site, helping officers manage complex consultation responses more effectively. 

“It's that one-stop shop for everything” 

Automating Spatial Constraint Checks 

A major innovation discussed during the session was the council’s use of automated spatial constraint checks. 

Previously, officers had manually checked every site against multiple GIS layers one at a time - a highly time-consuming process. 

Now, Objective Keyplan directly integrates with the council’s GIS layers to automatically assess sites against approximately 25–30 constraints, including: 

• Flood zones
• Conservation areas
• Listed buildings
• Environmental designations
• Utilities infrastructure
• Heritage assets  

The system applies a Red-Amber-Green (RAG) rating approach: 

• Red – possible showstopper constraints
• Amber – potential constraints requiring further assessment
• Green – no impact identified  

This allows officers to focus attention on sites requiring detailed review while quickly filtering lower-risk locations. 

Flexible Reporting and Future Development 

The discussion also showcased emerging reporting functionality, including automated PDF “site fact sheets” that compile all relevant assessment data into a single exportable report. 

These reports are expected to support: 

• Internal officer reviews
• Councillor briefings
• Public consultation material
• Evidence base publication  

The future development roadmap will also cover: 

• Mini-consultations with statutory consultees
• Bespoke feedback forms for highways, ecology, and conservation teams
• Interactive public web maps
• Additional integrations with external planning datasets and connectivity tools  

A Collaborative Approach to Planning Innovation 

A recurring theme throughout all of our recent webinar series is the importance of collaboration between planners and technology providers. 

At Objective we work closely with our customers and planning officers to actively shape how the platform evolves to meet real-world local plan challenges. 

As planning authorities continue to face growing evidence requirements and tighter resources, our discussion with Northumberland County Council demonstrates how digital transformation can streamline workflows, reduce administrative burden, and create more transparent, auditable planning processes. 

The session followed on from our recent planner panel discussion with Winchester and Stoke, as well as our earlier webinar exploring the four core stages of modern site assessment: gather, assess, manage and publish. In case you missed the webinar, you can now watch the series on-demand.

WATCH NORTHUMBERLAND WEBINAR