Best AI tool for analysing a huge planning application submission

[fluffandfaff]

Not really a property question in the sense of property but...
I am in desperate need of some tech wisdom
A major developer has just submitted a massive planning application for a huge proposed development right on the edge of our tiny rural village. It is an absolute monster of a proposal. We’re talking thousands of pages of documents—Phase I and II ground investigations, flood risk assessments, transport statements, heritage reports, ecology surveys, you name it.
The developer has clearly dumped this mountain of jargon on the council portal hoping we will all just throw our hands up and give up. It is full of endless "developer speak" specifically designed to trick us mere mortals into thinking this will be a wonderful, idyllic addition to the village, when in reality it’s going to completely overwhelm our tiny roads, drainage, and local infrastructure. Everything. I appreciate many of you will call me a Nimby. But this proposal is ridiculous.
Because our parish council are all about 90 years old they have tasked me with pulling together the village's official objection submission. I am not even on the council! But to all intents and purposes do everything for them. Usually it is just organising to cut a tree blocking a footpath... but this...
So... I need an AI platform that can do two main things:

1. Translate the developer jargon into plain English so I can actually understand what they are hiding in these reports (e.g., what the ground gas risks actually mean, or what their traffic modelling is glossing over).
2. Help draft a robust objection letter using actual planning policy references (NPPF, local council policies, ecology standards, etc.) so our response carries real weight with the planning committee. I do have a bit of knowledge but not to this standard.

My requirements:

• It must be able to handle massive file sizes and thousands of pages without throwing up a "you have reached your limit" or context-window error halfway through. There are nearly 25000 pages in this application.
• I need to be able to upload multiple PDFs at once (or whole folders) and ask questions across all of them simultaneously.
• I am more than happy to pay for a premium/pro plan, subscription, or API credit—I just need something that actually works reliably and doesn't get confused half way through and tell me total nonsense.

Has anyone used AI successfully to fight a planning application? Which platform is best for handling huge document loads like this—Google Gemini Advanced, ChatGPT Plus/Team, Claude Pro, NotebookLM, or a specialized PDF tool like ChatPDF/Queryable? Any advice, prompts, or tech setups would be an absolute lifesaver.

if you really want to do this, you need to pay a local planning expert with specialised knowledge. the AI won't know the details of the 'local plan' for your area or how this application does (or doesn't align) with it etc.

No, you need to pay an actual planning consultant to do this.

Also, the developer has submitted all this stuff because they have to submit it. It will all be mandated. It's incredibly expensive to put all this together, they have to pay loads of specialists and they don't do it just to give you the work of reading it! Do you really imagine they don't need to do flood risk, heritage etc?

An AI will sound very confident and tell you a load of rubbish with some more accurate stuff mixed in. And your objection then won't work, you'll just be giving some poor planner at the council the extra work of explaining to you why you've got it wrong. This is actually a major issues for councils at the moment because people think AI can do this, and it can't.

Chatgpt’s new astra model on the desktop app in work mode. It’s very good at this type of task. Do some reading on how best to prompt it.

from our experience id say your efforts will be futile . Even if the council object the developer will appeal and it’ll be waved through by Angela and her chums . Back to your question though I think AI will be very useful , Chat GPT was invaluable when I did a recent application . My situation wasn’t straightforward and it understood what I wanted to achieve and how to position it . A planning consultant will charge thousands of pounds and may miss detail on a vast amount of paperwork.

I know the details of the local plan though. I wrote most of it for the village! I do have some experience in planning etc. Am fairly knowledgeable on nppf too. This is more of a consolidation task... putting all 25000 pages together so i don't miss or forget things... pick up on discrepancies and contradictions in the application (eg planning for 150 car parking spaces, yet saying on the transport plan on 10 ectra vehicle movements a day) etc.

Thanks, I completely agree that copying AI text is a quick way to get an objection thrown in the bin. Planners can spot that a mile off!
I’m not using AI to write the final objection. I'm using it as more of a consolidation tool to digest thousands of pages of developer speak and find discrepancies etc for instance in their in their traffic/environmental modelling. I will manually verify every policy link and figure etc before anything gets submitted. I do have some basic knowledge of planning, and also have the support of a friend on a planning committee for a different council and so not connected with this application at all.

Nothing in the way of advice, sorry, (I’m fairly low-tech!) but wishing you the best of luck with a gargantuan task. Hope you get lots of helpful suggestions.

A valid planning objection is not about discrepancies, its about whether the proposal is policy compliant.

You have referenced that the proposal is enormous. You'd expect the paper work to be significant too so that shows that it is compliant.

I am however shocked that it is 25,000. That must include a lot of material that is not relevant e.g. it is copies of Policy itself, rather than what is being proposed . You could probably put quite a bit of it to one side.

Ultimately we need more homes, and not just in cities and towns which in many areas are overcrowded.

Good luck with you reading.

@fluffandfaff ”I appreciate many of you will call me a Nimby.”

You’re a nimby.
What exactly are you objecting to? The size of the development? The infrastructure? The traffic increase?

It is huge, and as you say so much of it is probably not relevant and just there to bore everyone to death so we don't actually see the important stuff. It is not for housing but a HUGE industrial site in a very small rural village in a National Park. It is also not really that policy compliant and they are trying to twist the meaning of the policies to fit. Homes should ne be at the expense of rural communities or our precious green spaces for them to become over crowded the same as cities and towns, which is their main purpose. Plus plenty of empty homes and ind units which could be repurposed rather than just keep building. A

Pay for chat and use in work mode.

If trying to protect my home and way of life makes me makes me a NIMBY, then I'll happily take the title! I don't care and am proud to be one. What I do care about is planning law. This isn't just an empty field on the edge of a village. The proposed site is inside a SSSI and sits within a National Park. It is not housing and is a major commercial development on a greenfield site. Our village has no facilities... not even a shop.
Under the NPPF, major commercial developments in or adjacent to designated sites face an exceptionally high legal bar. Planners are required to give substantial weight to conserving these assets, and major development should be refused unless there are proven public interest circumstances.
So no, this isn't about complaining over a lost view or a bit of extra noise. Which is important to us too. It’s about unmitigated environmental Harm, direct ecological and hydrological threats to a SSSI. National park protection and contravention of statutory policies designed to protect designated rural landscapes. Contamination, traffic, noise, light pollution in a sensitive area.

Do it yourself with your brain by 1) paying an expert and/or 2) work backwards from the criteria that cause plans to not be accepted and cherry pick those out of the application. If you’re worried about your village don’t use AI !

I’m surprised a developer would be trying to build a major commercial development inside a National Park and on top of a SSSI, in the middle of nowhere. Surely it’s already doomed to failure?

Sounds like there is more to this than meets the eye.

We are all a bit miffed about it tbh. I think brown envelopes may be involved somewhere...

If i were doing this at work I would use copilot 365 and create an agent then upload all relevant documents including the local plan - this will then ringfence the source material it is pulling from to give you answers and write responses

In real life my preference is chatgpt - in fact, I would start with ask chatgpt which AI is the best to help with what you need - i would suspect Claude but I don't have experience with it - it may be a bit trial and error

I think Gemini Pro AI/Ultra is the best choice for handling large numbers of documents although even that has a 10 file upload limit so you will need to organise them into groups to analyse.

Chat gpt is better at the understanding what the evidence means side but I think maybe you want to do this yourself anyway?

I have full access to Claude at work and it is very impressive in what it can do. You can be very specific in your prompt (do not assume, check documents to current planning law, check to local plan in project knowledge etc) but you have to remember AI is to be treated as no more than a junior helping collate an answer, which you then have to review and check. AI should not be used to give an answer, as at the end of the day, it cannot think, it can only replicate an answer based on existing patterns of knowledge.

Now, I haven’t tried it on 25,000 pages but I have given it numerous documents to refer to and it does it quite well.

As previous posters mention though, you can’t use AI to replace a properly qualified planning individual. AI cannot pick up nuance and cannot think for itself.

Policy N4 and N6 in the new NPPF (aug 26) place an exceptionally high bar on development in or affecting protected landscapes and SSSIs. Proposals for major development (which I assume this is) should be refused unless there are exceptional circumstances and very stringent tests are met. For SSSIs, assuming there will be direct loss of the qualifying features (an adverse effect), they need to demonstrate "The benefits of the development in the location proposed clearly outweigh both the
likely impact on the features of special scientific interest, and any broader impact
on the national network of Sites of Special Scientific Interest". I would think this is a pretty strong place to start.

Picking up inconsistencies won't help, really...it may delay things, but the developer will just say "whoops" and amend it.

Also, I assume this is a town and country planning act application rather than an NSIP for which your council is a consultee? As you'll know, the process is different for those... Was it allocated in the local plan? (Again, if not there may be more of an opportunity to consider the principle of that development in that place rather than details)

If you truly think it is a brown envelope situation (which I wouldn't put in your objection!) and it is consented, an appeal would definitely be based on the relevant policies.

Brown envelopes? Don't be so ridiculous.

An industrial development isn't going to be approved in a National Park in a SSSI anyway.

Please don't use AI. It hallucinates and can summarise documents incorrectly.

Just because a developer has submitted a planning application that you don't agree with is not proof of corruption or bribery.

Saying that, from what you have said the development sounds like it could have an Environmental Impact Assessment. If so, read the non technical summary, and look through chapter 1 to find the relevant chapters along with any mitigation chapter and any chapter that sets out the summary of environmental effects.

Read the planning supporting statement.

Compare to national policy and any local development plan.

Write a clear objection, it doesn't have to be very long, just cover each of the areas of concern.

Is the planning application for an AI data centre by any chance? There's one in local to me and it sounds like a similar approach to the planning process. Someone has set up a Facebook page where various experts have chipped in to analyse and respond to the documentation. If you are in Scotland Action to Protect Rural Scotland have been very helpful too. Good luck!

No. Not a data centre although there is an application for one around 20 miles from here. Good luck to you too! We are needing it by the looks of things.

There will be three key documents. As suggested, start with the planning statement which should identify the relevant planning policy and explain in the applicants view how the development complies. Then look at the Design and Access statement which should include some drawings and visuals which will help you understand how it will look. Finally read the EIA technical summary to explain the environmental impacts such as traffic etc. The other information will be drawings and numerous technical documents that will be summed up in the above.

Are you in Devon OP? If so contact the Devon Branch of CPRE. If you join they will help you with the objection, they employ an excellent planner who will draft it and focus on the areas where there is scope for a real challenge