Finding the local validation checklist for an authority

The local validation checklist is the document that decides whether your application is registered on the day it arrives or three weeks later. Every authority in England publishes one, most call it the local list or local information requirements, and it sits alongside the national list set by the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015. Find it, date it, and read the triggers rather than the document titles.

Most invalidations come down to something the applicant could have predicted from that one PDF.

What the national list requires

Article 7 of the Development Management Procedure Order sets the national requirements. In outline these are the completed application form, the correct certificate of ownership and any agricultural holdings certificate, a location plan and site plan identifying the land, the ownership and notice particulars, the fee, and a Design and Access Statement where the development is of a type that needs one.

These apply everywhere. An authority cannot waive them, and it cannot add to them except through a published local list. If a validation officer asks for something and cannot point you to either the Order or a published local requirement, the request has no footing.

What a local list may add

The Order allows an authority to require other particulars or evidence, provided the requirement is published, and provided it is reasonable having regard to the nature and scale of the proposed development and relates to a matter that is a material planning consideration.

Those two qualifications carry real weight. A requirement for a full Transport Assessment on a single dwelling is not reasonable having regard to scale. A requirement for a document about a matter the authority cannot take into account in its decision is not a material consideration. Both are arguable, and validation teams generally back down when the argument is made in writing with the wording of the Order quoted.

Typical local list items are an ecology or preliminary ecological appraisal where habitat is present, a Flood Risk Assessment in the higher flood zones or above a site area threshold, a Heritage Statement where designated assets are affected, a tree survey where trees fall within influencing distance, a contaminated land screening on former industrial land, parking and cycle storage details, refuse strategy, drainage details, a biodiversity net gain statement and metric output, and an air quality assessment inside a management area.

Where the local list is published

Start on the authority's own website. Search for the authority name with the words local validation list or local information requirements. It is almost always a PDF under the planning applications section, sometimes under a heading about making a valid application.

If that fails, three fallbacks work. The Planning Portal holds local requirements for each authority alongside the national ones as part of the submission process. Many authorities attach the local list to their pre-application response, so ask for it by name when you book pre-application advice. And a handful publish it inside a supplementary planning document on development management procedure rather than as a standalone file, which is why a site search on the council domain beats the navigation menu.

For the datasets that sit behind several of the triggers, the national planning data service is the quicker route to the underlying designations, and it will tell you whether your site touches a conservation area, an Article 4 direction area or a flood zone before you open the checklist.

The two year rule and why it matters

A local requirement does not bind an application if it was published more than two years before the date of the application. That is a statutory limit on how stale a local list can be, and it is the most useful sentence in the whole of the Order for an agent under time pressure.

So check the publication date on the front of the document, and check whether the authority has since adopted a revised version. If the only published list is three years old, a requirement that appears solely on that list is not enforceable, and a short covering note saying so usually resolves it. Do not overplay it. The national list still applies, and an authority that has let its list lapse can still refuse permission for want of information later.

Reading the triggers rather than the titles

A local list is a table of documents against circumstances. The document title tells you almost nothing; the trigger column tells you everything. Work down the trigger column with your site constraints in one hand.

Note: several triggers depend on data the authority holds rather than data you can see on site, such as the extent of an archaeological priority area or a critical drainage area. Ask the validation team for a constraints search on the site address before you commission anything.

Disputing a requirement without losing the programme

Push back in writing, on the day, and keep applying pressure rather than waiting. Set out the requirement, quote the Order's reasonableness test, state the nature and scale of the development, and say why the requirement does not meet the test. Attach the published local list page you are relying on, with its date.

If the authority holds its position, you have a commercial decision rather than a legal one. Producing a short document you think is unnecessary usually costs less than a three week standstill. Reserve the argument for requirements that would cost thousands or that depend on a survey season you cannot reach, because those are the ones where standing your ground actually pays.

Illustrative example: an authority asked for a full ecological appraisal on a garden infill plot with no habitat beyond amenity grassland and a fence line. The agent sent a dated photograph schedule, a preliminary walkover note from a qualified ecologist running to two pages, and the reasonableness argument. The application was validated four days later without the full appraisal.

Building validation into the submission programme

Work backwards from the target validation date. Identify every local list item that depends on a season or a third party, because those set the critical path. Bat emergence surveys run between May and September. Statutory undertaker records take weeks, and our note on ordering sewer records through a pre-development enquiry explains the lead time. The biodiversity metric has version control implications that catch out schemes drafted across a release, covered in downloading the biodiversity metric and version control.

Then record what you worked to. Save the local list PDF into the project file with its publication date in the filename, note the date you downloaded it, and keep the constraints search. If the authority changes its list mid-project, you can show which version applied when you submitted, and if a validation dispute arises months later the file answers it in one email.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which supporting documents a site's constraints are likely to trigger before you open the local list.

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