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Digital Planning Register Walkthrough

Step-by-step guide to exploring the Digital Planning Register used by UK councils

Try the Digital Planning Register

10 minutes to explore the register

Browse councils, search planning applications, and see what residents experience.
No technical knowledge required

This walkthrough guides you through the Digital Planning Register as a resident would use it. You'll browse councils, search planning applications, and explore application details. Perfect for planning managers, digital transformation leads, and anyone evaluating public planning registers.

The Digital Planning Register is an open-source Next.js application built by TPXimpact as part of the Open Digital Planning ecosystem. It provides a unified, accessible interface for residents to search and view planning applications, connecting to council BOPS (Back Office Planning System) APIs.

What you'll do

In this 10-minute walkthrough, you'll:

  1. Access the register — Find the URL from CloudFormation outputs and open it (2 minutes)
  2. Explore councils — Browse the list of configured councils and understand the multi-council model (3 minutes)
  3. Search applications — Search for planning applications and explore application details (3 minutes)
  4. Review the architecture — Understand the AWS infrastructure and how it connects to BOPS (2 minutes)

Before you start

Important You must have already requested the Digital Planning Register scenario via NDX:Try.

Deploy the Digital Planning Register scenario if you haven't already. Deployment takes 8 to 12 minutes.

Sample data check

Ready Sample data is pre-loaded and ready to use.

What you'll learn

For planning managers

  • How residents search and view planning applications
  • Multi-council aggregation in a single register
  • GOV.UK Design System accessibility patterns
  • How the register connects to BOPS back-office systems

For technical staff

  • ECS Fargate deployment for Next.js applications
  • CloudFront HTTPS termination pattern
  • Stateless container architecture (no database)
  • API aggregation patterns

What's included

Your deployment includes:

  • The full Digital Planning Register — the same application used by UK councils
  • 9 council configurations — Barnet, Buckinghamshire, Camden, Gateshead, Lambeth, Medway, Newcastle, Southwark, South Gloucestershire
  • GOV.UK Design System — fully accessible, WCAG 2.2 AA compliant interface
  • CloudFront HTTPS — secure access via AWS-managed TLS certificate

View the source code on GitHub

Start walkthrough

Takes approximately 10 minutes

Need help?

If you're stuck, check the troubleshooting section or contact us.