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A half century of planning applications are now available to the public on the Rotherham Borough Council web-site.

Rotherham's Planning Service has introduced a new 'Map Search' on the web, which allows a member of the public to search for the planning applications made for any property in the Rotherham Borough simply by clicking on a map.

Making planning details on individual properties more accessible to the public is the result of the Planning Service having indexed over 77,000 records from the past 58 years. In the majority of cases this means that the complete planning history of a site, whether it be houses, shops or factories, is now available.

Rotherham's Online Application for Mapping (R.O.A.M.) can be found by choosing the Planning link from the Rotherham Borough Council website followed by clicking on the New Planning Application Map Search link. Here you will find full instructions for using the Map Search.

Most of the applications from 2006 also have links to scanned copies of the original documents.

Phil Reynders, GIS and Searches Manager for Rotherham Borough Council, said the authority began the indexing in the late 1980's. He added: "As you can imagine, it took a major effort on behalf of the technicians to capture all these boundaries on computer mapping systems, and then administration staff have had to enter all the textual data.

"We have certainly uncovered a few interesting applications that show how life has changed over the last half century. For example back in 1950, the Grapes Hotel in Dalton made an application for a pig sty. We are not sure whether this was ever implemented but how many pubs today have pig sties? We have also discovered that the Mortuary at Doncaster Gate Hospital used to be called the 'Dead House' on maps from 1888."

Rotherham Borough Council's Planning Service received over 2,300 planning applications last year and the new Map Search - indexing work is still being carried out on a day by day basis - will allow Development Control Officers to retrieve planning information quickly and efficiently when they receive new applications for sites.