London authorities are starting to feed information into the UK's largest residential and commercial planning database, designed to cope with major population growth over the next decade.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) is building the London Development Database (LDD) to collect planning permission data from all 33 boroughs.

The database will manage the absorption of a population the size of Leeds into the capital over the next 10 to15 years.

The database, viewable in map format via a central web-based portal, will allow the GLA to overlay other spatial data - including information about public transport access, noise levels, open space and the London flood plain - to ensure local developments are in line with the London Plan, the mayor's statutory framework governing growth in the city.

'We need to make sure we are monitoring what is being built in London and the development database will play a key role in this,' said Bal Garcha, business consultant at the GLA?s technology group.

Local authorities are already trialling the system using the web portal to enter planning permissions into the database, which has been built by IT supplier Creative Database Projects (CDP).

The system will be made available to the public by May, allowing residents to view planning approvals that have been granted nearby through the portal.

The portal uses geographical information systems and reporting tools from Business Objects, which links to information held centrally in an Oracle spatial database.

The GLA believes the database will dramatically reduce time and money by centralising all planning information into one portal.

'It will bring all the planning decisions into one place so we can monitor spatial development across London more effectively,' said Garcha.

The system also links to the GLA's London Housing Capacity Study System, also built by CDP, which assesses suitability of land and Greater London?s housing capacity over the next 15 to 20 years.