A groundbreaking new AI tool, PlanAI, developed by researchers at the University of Liverpool, can summarise thousands of pages of public consultation responses in just minutes – drastically reducing the time and resources typically required by human planners.
Funded by the Government’s PropTech Innovation Fund, PlanAI was developed in collaboration with Greater Cambridge Shared Planning – the shared planning service for Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District councils.
The tool was tested on three live planning consultations, guidance documents that the Councils were consulting on relating to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Planning Obligations, and Health Impact Assessments.
From 18.5 hours to 16 minutes
The trial results were striking: PlanAI generated detailed summaries of every individual submission and a compendium report for all three consultations in just 16 minutes. By contrast, human planners took over 60 hours to log and summarise the 320 public submissions, including over 18 hours creating summaries – longer would have been required if human planners had been tasked with producing an overview analysis of the consultation exercise as Plan AI does. In terms of the quality of the summaries, the project team found that there were no noticeable differences between the AI summaries when compared to the human generated ones. The AI-generated reports included descriptive statistics and analytical insights, offering a clear, data-driven overview of the submissions’ content and themes.
Supporting democratic participation in public consultations
The AI tool was developed by Professors Alex Lord, Alex Singleton and Dr Mark Green from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Geography & Planning working in partnership with the Planning Policy and Strategy team at Greater Cambridge Shared Planning. This close collaboration was an important part of the development of the AI tool in making sure that the reports that it generates were consistent with how the Councils currently report back to local communities and elected members.
Professor Alexander Lord, Lever Chair at the University of Liverpool, explained: “The PlanAI tool harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to do what it does best – to read large volumes of text, summarise them, and identify patterns across submissions. While the GCSP planners will still read each submission when responding to them and making decisions, the tool can free up planners’ time to focus on the technical aspects of plan making.”
Public consultation is a legal requirement in planning, and public participation is critical -especially as planning issues often provoke strong local interest. However, local authorities often face an overwhelming volume of feedback, sometimes ranging from short notes to submissions of over 100 pages long.
Professor Lord added: “By streamlining the analysis process, PlanAI could allow planning departments to engage the public more frequently and thoroughly on a wider range of issues. This opens the door to more inclusive and democratic planning processes, without compromising the quality or depth of engagement.”
Cllr Dr Tumi Hawkins, Lead Cabinet Member for Planning for South Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “Our Shared Planning service is one of the first local authorities in the UK to commission its own bespoke AI tool, as we work to provide more reliable and meaningful insights into what our local communities think about proposed developments and planning policies. The new tool is already saving planners a substantial amount of time, freeing them up from administrative tasks to focus their time where their expertise is in high demand.”
Cllr Katie Thornburrow, Cabinet Member for Planning, Building Control and Infrastructure at Cambridge City Council, said: “Ultimately, the new tool could help us make more informed and more efficient decisions, whilst ensuring that the views of local communities continue to play a key role in helping to shape the new Local Plan and other planning documents. We know that AI needs to be deployed carefully and responsibly, but this initiative is a step forward in using this important technology in an appropriate way to help create a more efficient planning system that listens to and serves the needs of the community and can take proper account of people’s views.”