PatchRadar UK
A hyperlocal news intelligence app that surfaces court cases, fires, road closures, and council decisions within a configurable radius of your home or workplace, with plain-English summaries.
UK residents who want to know what's actually happening on their street — court cases, fires, planning rows — without scrolling five local papers
- Postcode-based alert feed pulling from local newspapers, BBC Local, and council agendas
- Plain-English summaries of court cases and planning applications, with 'why it matters to you' framing
- Map view of active incidents (fires, road closures, protests) within 1–10 miles
- Weekly 'your area this week' digest that condenses the noise into a five-minute read
The Dove Stone arson case is exactly the kind of local story mainstream UK news misses for non-Manchester readers — PatchRadar turns the patchwork of hyperlocal papers into one usable feed.
Ofcom's 2024 news report documents ongoing UK interest in local news, and the planning-alert niche alone drives 2,500+ daily applications tracked — but Google Trends 'Manchester Evening News' at 500 searches is modest and Ofcom flags declining engagement with traditional local outlets.News consumption in the UK 2024 report ↗UK Planning Application Alerts | Planning Alert ↗
Planning alerts are crowded (PlanWatch, PlanningAlert, ThePlanningReview, PlanWire, Searchland) and Nextdoor/Closeby cover neighbourhood news/alerts, but no single UK app combines court cases + fires + road closures + council decisions in one plain-English feed.Meet The New Nextdoor ↗Free email alerts for new UK planning applications near you ↗
Ofcom's 2024 local media review explicitly states 'willingness to pay for online local news and information in the UK is very low compared to other countries'; hyperlocal sites survive on memberships, small-biz ads and grants rather than subscriptions.Review of local media in the UK initial findings July 2024 ↗The Rise of Hyperlocal News in the UK ↗
Local news consumption is structural; demand grows as trust in national media declines
Planning data is trivial via existing APIs (PlanAPI, Searchland, PlanWire covering 382–384 councils, 23.9M+ applications); court lists via BAILII/COURT_LIST and fires/roadworks need scraping but LLM summarisation is straightforward — the build is well-scoped to a small team.PlanAPI - UK Planning Application API ↗UK Planning Data API | Planning Applications Across 382 LPAs | PlanWire ↗