Needles
Latest decisions
A live snapshot of the appeal landscape: headline stats, featured AI summaries, special-measures risk tables, LPA allow-rate leaderboards, and recent ongoing cases with a map of where they sit.
About Needles
Planning appeal research, sharpened
Needles turns the Planning Inspectorate’s appeal record into tools you can actually use — from a quick allow-rate check to full-text precedent search, inspector and LPA dashboards, and an AI appeal strategy report. Browse the free tools today; subscribe when you need the deeper research suite.
Free for everyone
No account required for the core browse tools — open them anytime.
Search
Full-text and filtered search across decided and ongoing appeals. Narrow by LPA, inspector, procedure, outcome, tags, and decision date — then jump straight into a case.
Decision calendar
A monthly heatmap of when appeals were decided, so you can spot busy periods and browse decisions by day rather than scrolling a flat list.
Appeals map
Geocoded appeal sites on an interactive map — explore patterns by area, zoom into a neighbourhood, and open any pin to read the case.
What are my chances?
Estimate allow rates for a scenario using recency-weighted outcomes by appeal type, procedure, LPA and planning issues. A fast sense-check before you dig deeper.
Free account & daily digest
Create a free account to receive a daily email of the latest decisions. Optional browse limits apply on some plans — subscribe when you need unlimited case access.
Members’ research suite
Go deeper with a subscription
Unlock case detail, precedent search, and full inspector and LPA dashboards — the tools built for serious appeal preparation.
Case details
Open any appeal for the full decision letter (formatted for reading), an AI headline and summary of the inspector’s reasoning, tags and planning issues, site address and map, plus links to the related LPA and inspector dashboards.
- Full decision letter text
- AI summary of the reasoning
- Outcome, procedure, dates and parties in one place
Ask Needles
Ask questions in plain English about cases in the Needles database — county roll-ups, authority performance, topic tags — and get a considered answer with links to the underlying appeals.
- Multi-turn chat grounded only in Needles data
- Interrogates cases, LPAs and decision topics for you
- Included with a monthly subscription
Precedent Engine
Search the full text of more than 126,000 decision letters and surface the past appeals most similar to your case — ranked by the issues in play and how close they are to your site.
- Full-text search across 126,000+ letters
- Relevance ranking plus optional postcode weighting
- Filter by type, procedure, outcome and date
Planning inspectors
Browse every inspector with decided appeals, then open a dashboard for caseload, outcomes, trends, procedure mix, and a map of their sites — useful when you know who is likely to hear your case.
- Directory and hearing/inquiry busyness rankings
- Allow rates and breakdowns by type and LPA
- Caseload trends over time
Find an LPA
Explore every local planning authority on an interactive hex map, then open a full dashboard — volumes, allow/dismiss rates, trends, top inspectors, ongoing appeals and a map of decided sites.
- England-wide hex map of authorities
- Recency-weighted allow-rate trends
- Historic LPAs included in the searchable list
One-off purchase
Appeal Report
Not ready to subscribe? Upload an LPA decision notice and get an AI appeal strategy report — free preview first, then unlock the full report for £99.
- Upload your decision notice (and optionally the officer’s report)
- Free preview: refusal reasons, appeal deadline, and odds headline
- Full report: draft responses for each reason, comparable appeals, procedure advice
- Inspector likelihood estimate and evidence guidance
- Download as PDF or Word — no subscription required for the report itself
API & integrations
Pull structured appeal data into your own tools with the Needles REST API — cases, summaries and LPAs, secured with API keys and rate limits. Ask us if you need access for your practice or product.
Ready to dig in?
Start with the free tools, create an account for the daily digest, or subscribe for the full research suite. Questions about plans or licensing? We’re happy to help.