How councils publish and review local validation lists
Article 11 of the DMPO 2015 makes a local validation requirement enforceable only if it sits on a list published within the two years before the application was made. Here is how the review cycle works and how to challenge a request that fails it.
A local validation list only bites if the council published it within the two years before the date your application was made. That rule sits in article 11 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, and it is the one most agents forget when a validation officer asks for a document nobody had budgeted for. A local validation list review is not housekeeping the council fits in when it has capacity. It is the condition on which the list's enforceability rests.
Which means the first question to ask when a request lands is not what the document costs. It is when the list carrying that requirement was last published.
Where the power to ask for extra documents comes from
Section 62(3) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets a local planning authority require particulars and evidence beyond the national application requirements. The national requirements are fixed: the standard application form, the ownership certificate, the location and site plans, the fee, and for most applications a design and access statement where one is required. Everything else a council asks for is a local requirement, and local requirements carry conditions.
Article 11 of the DMPO 2015 sets three of them. The requirement must appear on a list published by that authority. The list must have been published within the two years immediately before the date the application was made. And the information sought must be reasonable having regard to the nature and scale of the development, and must relate to a matter it is reasonable to think will be a material consideration in the determination.
Each condition is independent. A request can fail on any one of them while the other two are met, which is why a flat refusal to supply a document is weaker than a targeted objection naming the condition that fails.
Why the list has to be reviewed and consulted on
The two-year rule forces authorities back to the document on a fixed cycle. Without it a list adopted in 2016 could still be demanding surveys against a policy regime that no longer exists. Planning Practice Guidance on making an application expects authorities to keep local lists under review, to consult those who use them, and to justify each item against the statutory conditions rather than carrying it forward out of habit.
The review cycle is also how policy change actually reaches the validation counter. Mandatory biodiversity net gain applied to major development from 12 February 2024 and to small sites from 2 April 2024, and fire statements under article 9A of the DMPO reach relevant buildings through a separate national route. A list reviewed in the intervening period will name the evidence the council expects for those regimes. One that has not been reviewed usually asks for something that has been superseded.
Consultation matters for a practical reason as well. Councils that consult agents tend to produce lists with thresholds attached, so a request for a transport statement is tied to a unit count or a floorspace figure rather than left to officer discretion.
Checking whether a list is still in date
Do this before you submit, not after the validation email arrives.
- Find the list on the council's own site, usually under planning application forms or validation requirements rather than in the local plan library.
- Read the publication date printed on the document itself. Page footers and content management timestamps are not evidence of publication.
- Look for the committee report or delegated decision that approved the current version, which normally records the consultation and the date of adoption.
- Compare that date with the date your application was made, not the date the council started processing it.
- Save a dated copy as a PDF. If the council republishes the list mid-application, you will want the version that applied on the day.
Where the printed date is more than two years old, say so in the covering letter at submission and set out which documents you have supplied and why. That is a far more comfortable position than arguing it three weeks later with a stalled application. The clock only starts on validation, and every week of dispute is a week the eight week determination period has not begun.
Challenging a request for a document not on the list
Start by asking the validation officer to identify the requirement: which item on which published list, and the date that list was published. Half of these requests resolve at that point, because the officer is working from an internal checklist that has drifted from the published one.
If the requirement does appear on a current list, the remaining argument is proportionality. Article 11 ties reasonableness to the nature and scale of the development, so a full transport assessment for a two-unit infill scheme is vulnerable in a way that a drainage statement for the same site is not. Set out the scale, the trip generation or the site area, and offer the lesser document you think is proportionate.
Escalation goes to the development management team leader, then through the council's published complaints procedure. Judicial review exists but is almost never proportionate for a householder or minor application, and the practical cost of a fortnight's delay is usually lower than the cost of the argument.
There is a middle route worth taking more often. Where the document is one the case officer will need in any event, supplying it after validation, or agreeing that the point is dealt with by condition, keeps the application moving while preserving the objection in writing. Detail on the two-year point and how it has been applied sits in our guide to local list validation requirements.
Where councils publish lists and consultation responses
Most authorities publish the current list as a PDF on the planning application pages, alongside the fee schedule. The consultation that produced it is often somewhere else entirely: a closed consultation page, a planning committee agenda, or a service report to a scrutiny panel. If you need the reasoning behind a particular item, the committee papers are usually the only place it is written down.
In two-tier areas the picture is more scattered, because the district publishes the list while the county supplies the highways and archaeology requirements that sit inside it. A request for an archaeological desk-based assessment often originates with the county's historic environment record rather than the district. Our note on who handles highways and archaeology in two-tier areas sets out where each sits.
Some councils publish a validation checklist per application type, some publish one long list with applicability columns, and a handful still publish both with different content. Where the two disagree, quote both and ask which the authority relies on.
When the list conflicts with national policy
A local list controls information, not policy. It cannot create a test the development has to pass, and it cannot require evidence for a matter that is not capable of being a material consideration. That distinction settles most apparent conflicts: the council may lawfully ask for an assessment even where you expect it to show no harm, because the assessment is information.
Real conflict shows up in thresholds. Where a list requires an assessment at a scale below the threshold in national policy or in the adopted development plan, the answer is the adopted plan, and the local plan position is worth checking before you argue. Our explainer on reading local plan policy and housing land supply covers how the plan-led duty under section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 works in practice. Cite the current National Planning Policy Framework by edition, since the Framework was re-issued on 17 August 2026 with policy-coded chapters in place of paragraph numbers, and an old paragraph reference in a covering letter tells an officer you have not checked.
Where an item is unreasonable, say which condition in article 11 it fails and offer the proportionate alternative in the same letter. Officers respond better to a substitute than to a refusal.
If you want to see which of the 66 report types a site is likely to trigger before you go near a validation list, enter the postcode on PlanScope and work back from the constraints it detects.
This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Frequently asked questions
How old can a local validation list be before it stops applying?
Article 11 of the DMPO 2015 ties enforceability to publication within the two years immediately before the date the application was made. A list published more than two years before that date cannot found a local requirement. Check the publication date printed on the document itself rather than the date shown on the web page, and keep a dated copy.
Can a council refuse to validate an application over a document that is not on the list?
Not lawfully as a local requirement. Ask the validation officer to name the item and the list it appears on, with the publication date. Requests often come from an internal checklist that has drifted from the published version, and identifying the source resolves most of them without any escalation.
What are the national application requirements?
The standard application form, the correct fee, the ownership certificate, a location plan and site plan, and a design and access statement where one is required. These apply everywhere and are set by national procedure. Anything beyond them is a local requirement and must satisfy the conditions in article 11 of the DMPO 2015.
Does the eight week determination period start when I submit?
No. The statutory period runs from validation, so a dispute over a local requirement delays the start of the clock rather than eating into it. That is why raising a two-year point in the covering letter at submission is far less costly than arguing it after a validation refusal.
Where do councils publish the consultation behind a validation list?
Usually not next to the list. The consultation responses and the reasoning for each item tend to sit in a planning committee agenda, a delegated decision record or a closed consultation page. If you need to know why a particular document is required, the committee papers are normally the only written source.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.