Digitising Local Plan-Making for Cornwall Council with LANDARNA
Client: Cornwall Council
Delivered by: 3ADAPT
Case Study
Strategic Context and Planning Imperatives
Cornwall Council, mirroring the demands faced by many progressive local authorities, undertook a comprehensive strategic review of land availability and suitability to inform its forthcoming Local Plan. Key imperatives driving this initiative included:
Processing a large and diverse corpus of land submissions under the Call for Sites initiative.
Aligning spatial planning outcomes with broader imperatives such as the Climate Emergency, Biodiversity Net Gain, and the delivery of affordable housing.
Establishing robust development trajectories to inform infrastructure phasing and investment planning.
Operationalising the Cornwall Economic Strategy (“Good Growth Plan”) through spatially explicit modelling of economic and social value.
Phase 1 Deployment: LANDARNA as an Evidence-Led Planning Tool
The first deployment phase of LANDARNA saw the integration of nearly 1,000 site submissions into a unified, digitised system for assessment, scenario testing, and trajectory planning. LANDARNA’s architecture enabled Cornwall Council to derive analytical clarity from a complex and multi-layered dataset.
Key Deliverables and Methods:
Automated Site Ingestion: We ingested submissions from Cornwall's digitised Call for Sites platform, supplementing this with proprietary workflows to standardise and validate entries.
Multiscale Geospatial Analysis: Sites were assessed against national datasets (e.g. Flood Zones, SSSIs), 3ADAPT's proprietary overlays (e.g. BMV Land, property values), and Cornish-specific datasets (e.g. LNRS Zones, Common Land, Mineral Safeguarding Areas).
HELAA Dashboard Deployment: LANDARNA provided an interactive dashboard enabling the evaluation of site suitability, achievability, and availability using Cornwall-specific criteria.
Development Yield Forecasting: We implemented a first-pass capacity model aligned to the HELAA framework, incorporating density and phasing assumptions to inform housing supply trajectories.
Scenario Optioneering: Comparative spatial strategies (e.g. urban concentration, new settlements) were modelled and visualised to support policy testing.
Figure 1: Automated Site Suitability Appraisal Speeding up the Plan Making Process and Saving Officer Time
Impacts and Outcomes
Comprehensive Site Review: Close to 1,000 sites were triaged, assessed, and classified across multiple dimensions (residential, commercial, nature-based, energy).
Integrated Scenario Modelling: The project enabled Cornwall to assess the spatial-economic implications of different growth configurations in real-time.
Data-Driven Insight: The integration of yield forecasts, impact scoring, and HELAA phasing provided a rich evidentiary basis for plan-making.
Institutional Alignment: LANDARNA facilitated more cohesive collaboration between planning officers, senior leadership, and external stakeholders through shared dashboards and structured review mechanisms.
Figure 2: Example Option Yield Forecast across Hundreds of Sites
Generalisation and Replicability
The tools and methodologies developed through the Cornwall pilot are directly transferable to other local authorities. Key features of LANDARNA that support its generalisation include:
Automated Multi-Criteria Screening: Systematic evaluation of site constraints and opportunities using structured datasets.
Integrated Six Capitals Framework: Assessments encompass natural, social, human, manufactured, intellectual, and financial capital.
Real-Time Policy Simulation: Dynamic modelling environments facilitate in-workshop scenario testing.
Auditable Evidence Base: Outputs support HELAA compliance, local plan consultation, and public transparency.
Future Phases: Scaling Capacity and Intelligence
Phase 2 of the Cornwall LANDARNA project will expand the platform’s utility by embedding:
Automation of Batch 2 Site Evaluations: Enabling seamless assessment of newly submitted and proactively identified sites.
AI-Driven Document Intelligence: Deploying natural language processing to extract insights from planning documents.
Enhanced Engagement Workflows: Supporting participatory planning via structured landowner and community input.
Monitoring and Delivery Tools: Aligning planning approvals with long-term monitoring of development outcomes.
Figure 3: Example cumulative Impacts of an development scenario for the region.
Proven Expertise and Institutional Trust
LANDARNA’s capability is underpinned by 3ADAPT’s multidisciplinary experience across the planning, sustainability, and software development domains:
Strategic advisory for Yorkshire Water, Affinity Water, and major renewables developers such as Ecotricity.
Partnerships with DEFRA on the Environmental Land Management scheme and landowner engagement trials.
Local authority collaborations including Cornwall, supporting Local Plan digitisation, nature recovery mapping, and renewable energy zoning.
Advisory roles with Woodland Trust and The Conservation Volunteers, supporting environmental NGOs and conservation charities in evaluating and enhancing the sustainability and climate resilience of land holdings.
Collaborations with housing promoters to deliver sustainable, residentially led masterplans, as well as commercially driven and mixed-use developments that reflect best practice in spatial sustainability and urban design.
Contributions to design and planning best practice through references in RIBA Design for Use guidance.
Figure 4: From digitising site level information to modelling regional impacts and tracking impacts on national policy.
Exploring Opportunities
For local authorities, landowners, and planning professionals, LANDARNA offers a proven digital infrastructure to:
Rapidly ingest and appraise site data at scale;
Align spatial planning with strategic goals and regulatory requirements;
Deliver robust, data-backed evidence to support transparent and defensible decision-making.
Want to Learn More?
If you're part of a local authority, community group or organisation interested in tracking and improving the impact of your own land-based projects, we’d love to hear from you.
Anthony Davies
Contact Anthony who has led this work at 3ADAPT, to explore how LANDARNA could support your goals.