The planning history of QPlan
Planning history · QPlan
How QPlan got here.
Councils keep a planning history for every site: what was applied for, and what was decided. I thought QPlan should have one too. This is how it got here.
Applicant: Edward Pina-Butler, AI solutions engineer and planning consultant.
Six entries, 2021 to 2026. Scroll, and they arrive in order.
EPB/2021/01 · 2021
Something more practical
Proposal BSc Urban Planning and Development, Cardiff University
I always wanted to be a property developer. A general business degree wasn't going to teach me that, so I went for something more practical: Urban Planning and Development at Cardiff.
It covered what I actually wanted to know. Property, regeneration, site planning, development valuation, and the law and policy behind all of it. It's also where I first saw how slow the planning process really is.
DecisionApproved a practical course, aimed at development.
EPB/2023/02 · 2023 to 2024
Somebody's already done it
Proposal An app to speed up the planning process
In third year I had the idea of building an app to speed up the planning process, and I've been obsessed with it ever since.
I told my tutor I wanted to build it, and the answer was that somebody had already done it. Honestly, that demotivated me for a while. Then I thought to myself, fine, somebody's done it, but why can't I try?
DecisionAdvised that somebody had already done it. Proceeded anyway.
EPB/2024/03 · May 2024
The dissertation
Proposal Dissertation: Ethical Dimensions of Artificial Intelligence in Urban Planning
So I made it my dissertation. My first idea was AI in smart cities, things like traffic lights and infrastructure, but after my first supervisor meeting it came down to planning, because that's where I thought the gap was.
I interviewed an AI specialist, a planner with twenty years' experience and a digital planning specialist, and asked them what could go wrong. They all said the same thing in different ways: AI should help the planner, not replace them, and you have to check the data before you trust it. I still build QPlan that way.
DecisionSubmitted 7 May 2024. Graduated BSc (Hons), 2:1.
EPB/2024/04 · 2024
The first QPlan
Proposal First QPlan: a chat interface answering planning questions from the NPPF
After I graduated I built the first version. This was before most people knew how to use AI properly, and I definitely didn't. I always wanted a chat interface you could ask anything, even get it to write you a planning statement, so that's what I built. It looked pretty good, a liquid glass design, but there was no model behind it. I didn't know how to use API keys, so it answered from files I'd loaded in, starting with the NPPF.
I taught myself to run it on my own server, back before you could just ask an AI to deploy it for you.
DecisionSuperseded a start, not a product.
EPB/2025/05 · 2025
Keeping it going
Proposal Continued development of QPlan
2025 is when I really got stuck into it. I'd had the plan in my head for a couple of years by then.
A few people got involved along the way and lost motivation. I kept it going and just kept chipping away at it.
DecisionContinued by the applicant.
EPB/2026/06 · 2026
Where it is now
Proposal QPlan: know any site in England
QPlan now is a completely different thing from that first chat window. It screens sites in England against government data, works out feasibility and viability, and answers planning questions from the actual statute, and every answer comes with its source.
The numbers come from the data, not the AI. The AI writes the words and never makes up a figure, and if the evidence isn't there, it tells you. That's basically my dissertation, built.
DecisionIn private testing join the waitlist for access.
Statement of the applicant
Why I keep going
There’s so much more potential here than what’s out there now. A lot of what gets sold as AI in planning is a chat box on top of a model. That’s the baseline, and most people stop there.
I love planning and I love AI, and not many people get to properly do both. When you actually try to get it right, instead of just getting it out, there’s a lot more room to grow than people think.
QPlan is me trying to show what AI can do when someone who knows planning, and actually cares about it, is at the wheel. I hope you’ll stick with me for the rest of the journey.
I give notice that I intend to keep going.
The register in full
Planning history of QPlan
| Reference | Proposal | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| EPB/2021/012021 | BSc Urban Planning and Development, Cardiff University | Approved |
| EPB/2023/022023 to 2024 | An app to speed up the planning process | Advised |
| EPB/2024/03May 2024 | Dissertation: Ethical Dimensions of Artificial Intelligence in Urban Planning | Submitted |
| EPB/2024/042024 | First QPlan: a chat interface answering planning questions from the NPPF | Superseded |
| EPB/2025/052025 | Continued development of QPlan | Continued |
| EPB/2026/062026 | QPlan: know any site in England | In private testing |