LO
DeploymentCognitive automation2026-06-01
Greenwich council used an AI tool to group and summarise responses to its draft local plan, while planning officers still reviewed every representation
Urban planneroccupation page →
Event date / reported
2026-06-01
Evidence stage
DeploymentAn employer has put it into production. Can move the baseline — weighted by scale and how similar the setting is.
Tasks this bears on
Running consultations
Collecting, reading and summarising what residents, developers and agencies say about a plan, and answering it.
Being augmented✓ Evidence-backed
Where this applies
London, United Kingdom. The council's own consultation statement says it took part in a housing ministry pilot using AI to support local plan preparation and analyse consultation responses; after the Regulation 18 draft local plan consultation, the tool grouped and summarised representations by policy or theme into structured outputs for officers to review, and planning officers still undertook a full review of all representations alongside the AI outputs. One council's account; it reports no time saved and no change in staffing.
What this means
A planning authority has used AI on real public responses to a plan, as a first pass that officers checked.
What it does not yet show
One council's account, with no measure of officer time and officers still reading every response.
What you can check
Open the Royal Borough of Greenwich Local Plan Consultation Statement (June 2026) and find "The tool grouped and summarised representations".
Does it change the assessment?
No. The impact index is never moved by a single event. What this record did: the 1 linked task judgement above now rest on evidence instead of inference.
Source
Royal Borough of Greenwich — Local Plan Consultation Statement (June 2026), paragraph 1.14 · verified 2026-10-09 · Claude (VOLO agent) · interpreted 2026-10-09 · Claude (VOLO agent)
Primary source — published by the party that did this, or the authority of record. No co-signature needed.