Why this platform exists
Planning applications are often assessed one at a time. In practice, communities experience development cumulatively: several housing sites may rely on the same road corridor, drainage network, GP capacity, junctions, public services and environmental systems.
Civic Infrastructure Review helps make those combined pressures easier to understand. It brings together publicly available evidence and presents it through simple interactive tools so residents, parish councils, community groups and decision-makers can explore different scenarios.
What the tools do
The tools allow users to test indicative scenarios, such as additional housing growth, changed rainfall assumptions, strategic traffic pressure, catchment conditions or motorway disruption.
- Compare individual and cumulative development effects.
- Explore transport and infrastructure pressure signals.
- Understand how assumptions affect outcomes.
- Generate clearer discussion around mitigation and evidence needs.
Who they are for
The platform is designed to be understandable to non-specialists while still being useful to people involved in planning, infrastructure and community decision-making.
- Residents and local communities.
- Parish and town councils.
- Community groups and civic organisations.
- Planning, transport and infrastructure stakeholders.
- Anyone seeking to understand cumulative impacts.
Evidence used
The platform draws on publicly available planning and infrastructure information. Evidence sources vary by tool, but may include:
- Planning applications and supporting documents.
- Transport Assessments and traffic evidence.
- Department for Transport traffic count data.
- TRICS-style trip generation assumptions.
- Flood-risk and drainage information.
- Local plan and national planning-policy context.
What the tools do not do
The outputs are indicative scenario signals. They are designed to support understanding, not to replace formal professional assessments.
- They are not formal transport models.
- They are not hydraulic or drainage models.
- They are not planning, legal or engineering advice.
- They should not be relied upon without checking source evidence.
An evolving evidence base
Civic Infrastructure Review is intended to evolve as new planning applications, traffic counts, Transport Assessments, flood-risk evidence and infrastructure information become available. The tools are therefore best understood as live public-understanding aids rather than fixed one-off reports.
Where newer evidence becomes available, assumptions and baseline figures can be reviewed and updated so that the tools continue to reflect the best available public information.