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Check and provide planning data

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Peterborough City Council

Article 4 direction

How to prepare and provide your article 4 direction data

Prepare your data

Your data does not need to be complete or perfect to start. You can start with what you have and improve it over time.

Find out more about how to prepare your data

Check your data

Check your data to find out if it is ready to publish or if you need to make any changes.

When your data is ready, you can publish it on your website.

You can check your data using any of the following:

  • CSV
  • GeoJSON
  • GML
  • GeoPackage
  • your endpoint URL - the URL of the data file or feed itself

Publish your data

You must publish your data:

  • on a webpage on your official planning authority's website - which usually ends in gov.uk
  • in a format that is clear and easy to understand

You can publish your data using any of the following:

  • CSV
  • GeoJSON
  • GML
  • GeoPackage

You must include a statement to confirm that you provided the data under the Open Government Licence.

Hosting your data

An endpoint URL is where anyone can download your data.

Endpoints are usually either a:

  • file hosted on your web server - like URLs that end in .json or .csv
  • live data feed from an API - hosted by your Geographic Information System (GIS) software or open data platform

Help with providing data using an ArcGIS data layer

An ArcGIS data layer URL usually looks like this:

https://maps.example.gov.uk/arcgis/rest/services/Planning/LocalPlans/FeatureServer/0

This URL is made up of:

  • the organisation's website (maps.example.gov.uk)
  • the ArcGIS REST services path (/arcgis/rest/services)
  • the name of the service (Planning/LocalPlans)
  • the type of service (for example FeatureServer or MapServer)
  • a number that identifies the layer within the service (/0)

You only need to make changes to your data at your endpoint URL. Do not change your endpoint URL when you make updates.

Create your webpage

For each dataset, your webpage must include a:

  • link to the endpoint URL
  • summary of what the data is about
  • statement that the data is provided under the Open Government Licence

Within your endpoint, you will need a documentation-url for each record in your dataset.

Give each record a documentation-URL

Each record in your dataset needs a documentation-url, so that we can find the part of your webpage that includes the record.

Each documentation-URL must be unique. There are 2 ways that you can create a unique URL.

1. One page per record

Give each record its own webpage, so that the documentation-url is the full page address. For example, www.yourwebsite.gov.uk/planning/article-4-directions/smith-road.

2. Multiple records

List all records on a single page and add an anchor link for each one. For example, yourwebsite.gov.uk/planning/article-4-directions#smith-road.

You need to check that your publishing system supports anchor links (also called fragment identifiers).

Legal documents

If a record is for a legal document, you need to add a document-url that links straight to the file. For example, a direction notice or order.

Examples

View example webpages that show how to publish planning data.

Provide your data

After you publish, you should provide your data to the Planning Data Platform.

You need to submit:

  • your full name
  • your work email address
  • the URL where anyone can download your data – called your 'endpoint URL'
  • the URL for your gov.uk website where you can view or select a link to view the data – called your 'source webpage URL'

Providing your data will help to:

  • maintain and improve your data quality
  • make land and housing data easier to find, use and trust

View your data

Visit your organisation's dashboard anytime to view the data you have provided and the datasets you still need to provide.

If there are any issues with your data after you provide it, we will let you know what you can do to improve it.

Update your data

If you use the check and provide your data service, you only need to make changes to your data at your endpoint URL. Planning.data.gov.uk will update automatically.

If you create a new endpoint URL, you will need to provide your data again.