nineteen47 is a chartered town planning and urban design consultancy providing master planning, planning applications, appeals, and visualisation services across the UK. They joined Searchland two years ago to consolidate their site appraisal workflow.
We spoke with Clare Plant, Director of Planning, about how Searchland has transformed how her team works.
Challenges before Searchland:
- Data spread across multiple statutory body websites
- Outdated or inconsistent data across different council websites
- No single tool bringing together planning policy, appeals, and constraints data
"Searchland brings everything together in a convenient and comprehensive format"
Before Searchland, nineteen47's team manually gathered data from national and local bodies and stakeholders. Now everything sits in one place.
"Searchland brings data together in a site-specific format. It guides the team through a key checklist of information, avoiding arduous in-house processes. We're also alerted to relevant updates in real time from across the country”.
"Faster, smarter site appraisals mean we can be more responsive to client needs"
Clare says that initial data gathering can now be done in less than half the time it previously took, while producing a more comprehensive appraisal.
"The team loves that if a client calls us and says 'I just need a quick view on this site,' we can utilise Searchland during the call, check the facts, and give them a initial view."
"There's nowhere else that brings all that data together in one place"
Clare's team uses Searchland for physical constraints data, flood risk, environmental designations, utilities maps, policy checks, five-year housing land supply, Land Registry information, and ownership boundaries. But it's the unique combination of planning-specific data that sets Searchland apart.
"It's the only tool I've seen that brings together such a range of data that we as planners and designers would need access to. Other land search tools don't have the policy and appeals information that enables us to provide informed advice to clients. All that data is really valuable."
The ability to search appeal decisions by keyword and view planning officer caseloads has proven particularly useful for building planning cases and anticipating workloads.
Personal support that makes onboarding easy
Clare also values the consistency of having the same contact throughout onboarding and beyond.
"I really liked the personal touch with Searchland. There was consistency. It was really easy to get up to speed. We got the team trained, and there were regular check-backs, which were really helpful."
What's next for nineteen47?
The team is focused on embedding Searchland deeper into their workflows and exploring the AI features to pull information even faster.
"Training it into our process more and using the AI function to gather and share information even more effectively."
Quotes from Clare Plant, Director (Planning) at nineteen47
Want to see how Searchland can help you streamline site appraisals and access comprehensive planning data? Book a demo with our team today.
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