Back Office Planning System (BOPS)

Explore the open-source planning case management system from Open Digital Planning - used by UK councils to process real planning applications

Back Office Planning System (BOPS)
Try Before You Buy
View walkthrough (opens in new tab)

View source on GitHub

Overview

The planning system used by real UK councils
35 sample applications • 3 user roles • Applicants portal with OS Maps • 15-minute guided walkthrough

Learning Artifact: This is a pre-deployed demonstration environment for learning and exploration, not a production-ready product.

The Back Office Planning System (BOPS) is the open-source planning case management system developed by the Open Digital Planning programme. It’s used by councils including Lambeth, Southwark, and Buckinghamshire to process real planning applications.

This scenario deploys the complete BOPS system with realistic sample data, so you can experience the full planning application lifecycle as a case officer would use it.

Important After requesting your session, the environment takes approximately 10-15 minutes to deploy. Once ready, the walkthrough will guide you through logging in and exploring the system.

What you’ll explore

Planning Features

Feature What it does
Officer dashboard Case management with workload view and statutory deadlines
Application management Browse, filter, and search 35 realistic planning cases
Assessment workflow Validation, consultation, assessment, and determination stages
Applicants portal Public-facing portal with OS Maps and consultation comments

Infrastructure

Component AWS Service
Compute AWS Fargate (ECS)
Database Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL with PostGIS
Caching Amazon ElastiCache (Redis)
HTTPS Amazon CloudFront (2 distributions)
Mapping Ordnance Survey Vector Tiles

Getting started

Once you select “Try this now” above, your session environment will begin deploying automatically.

What happens next:
1. Your environment deploys (~10-15 minutes)
2. Follow the walkthrough to log in as a planning officer
3. Browse applications, review workflows, and explore the public portal
Preview the scenario Preview the walkthrough

Why this matters for local government

Faster application processing

  • 40% reduction in processing time reported by BOPS councils
  • Structured workflow ensures nothing is missed
  • Statutory deadlines tracked automatically
  • Consistent quality across thousands of applications

Public transparency

  • Residents track applications affecting their area
  • Consultation comments submitted online
  • Map views with site boundaries
  • Fewer phone calls and FOI requests

Open source, zero licence fees

  • No vendor lock-in
  • Community-driven development
  • Shared investment across councils
  • Full control over your data

Standards compliance

  • Statutory planning process built in
  • GOV.UK Design System aligned
  • Accessibility standards compliant
  • Data standards from Open Digital Planning

About BOPS

BOPS is developed by the Open Digital Planning (ODP) programme, a collaboration between DLUHC and local planning authorities to modernise England’s planning system.

Part of the ODP ecosystem • BOPS (back office) • PlanX (submissions) • Data & API standards

The problem

  • Planning applications processed manually
  • Inconsistent workflows across officers
  • Residents have no visibility into progress
  • Statutory deadlines missed

The solution

  • Structured digital workflow from validation to determination
  • Dashboard-driven case management
  • Public applicants portal with maps
  • Automated deadline tracking

The outcome

  • 40% faster processing times
  • £180k annual savings (estimated, 2,000 apps/year)
  • Consistent quality and compliance
  • Better public engagement

“BOPS is transforming how councils process planning applications. By digitising the entire workflow, we’re making planning faster, more transparent, and more consistent.”

— Open Digital Planning programme

Constraints

  • Budget limit: $50 maximum spend (sufficient for extensive exploration)
  • Duration: 24 hours from activation
  • Purpose: Evaluation only (non-production use)
  • No cost to you - the budget is provided by NDX:Try

Resource Lifecycle Warning: All resources in your sandbox will be automatically deleted when your session time expires OR when the budget limit is reached (whichever comes first). Do not store important data in this environment.

How this was built

This scenario is built with open source infrastructure as code using AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit) with Docker. The BOPS application is the same codebase used in production by UK councils.

View the source code on GitHub (opens in new tab)

Explore more scenarios

Learn more about BOPS

Troubleshooting

  • Try button not working? Make sure you’re signed in to NDX
  • Did not receive credentials? Check your spam folder, or wait a few minutes
  • Cannot access the scenario? Ensure you’re using the correct AWS region (us-east-1)
  • Login fails? The password is shown in the CloudFormation Outputs tab — check you’re copying it correctly
  • Environment still deploying? BOPS takes 10-15 minutes — check the CloudFormation stack status

Support

For technical issues during your sandbox session, contact the NDX team at ndx@dsit.gov.uk.