Local validation lists: what authorities may require

A local planning authority can ask for more than the national application form requires, but only for things it has published on a local list, and only where the request is reasonable for the development in front of it. That second limb is the one applicants forget. A list item is not a licence to demand a transport assessment for a porch, and an authority that invalidates an application on an unreasonable requirement is acting outside the scheme the Development Management Procedure Order 2015 sets up.

Validation is also the point at which the determination clock starts, so a fortnight lost arguing about a document is a fortnight added to the programme. Getting the list right before submission is worth more than any later dispute.

National and local information requirements

The national requirements are fixed. The correct application form, the fee, the certificate of ownership and any agricultural holdings notice, a location plan and site plan, the relevant drawings, and for certain applications a design and access statement or a fire statement. Those are set nationally and apply everywhere.

Local requirements sit on top. They are made under the power in section 62 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which lets an authority require particulars and evidence in support of an application, and they only operate where the authority has published them in a list.

The national requirements have also grown. Biodiversity net gain information was added for applications to which the gain condition applies, so an application that used to need nothing on ecology may now need a completed statutory metric and a statement about the pre-development biodiversity value. There is a separate piece on how the biodiversity gain condition is deemed into permissions.

The test a local requirement must satisfy

Two conditions have to be met before an authority can insist on a local list item.

The item must appear on a list the authority has published, and that list must have been published or revised within the preceding two years. An item on a list that has gone stale cannot be enforced at validation.

And the request must be reasonable, having regard to the nature and scale of the proposed development, with the authority taking a reasonable view that the information will be a material consideration in determining the application. A requirement reasonable for a 200-home scheme is not automatically reasonable for a two-storey side extension.

How often lists must be reviewed

The two-year rule is the practical control on list creep. Authorities have to keep the list current and publish it, and an item that has not survived a review within that period loses its force. Most authorities publish the date of the current version on the list itself. Where they do not, ask.

This matters more than it sounds. Local lists accumulate items that made sense when a particular policy was emerging and have never been removed. A validation officer working through a checklist will apply them anyway, because the checklist is what they have.

Challenging an invalidation

There is no appeal in the ordinary sense against a decision to treat an application as invalid. The routes available are practical rather than statutory.

1. Write to the validation team citing the published list, its publication date, and the reasonableness test as it applies to your scheme. Ask which policy makes the information a material consideration here.
2. Ask for the matter to be referred to a senior officer or the development management manager, which often resolves it faster than correspondence with the validation desk.
3. Offer the information in a proportionate form, for example a short technical note rather than a full assessment, where the underlying concern is legitimate.
4. Use the council's formal complaints procedure, and then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, where the authority is systematically applying a stale or unreasonable list.
5. Judicial review, in rare cases and on advice, where a point of principle is at stake and the delay matters commercially.

Option three resolves most disputes. Validation officers are usually applying a rule rather than defending a position.

Timing of the eight week clock

The determination period runs from the day after a valid application is received: eight weeks for most minor applications, 13 weeks for major development, 16 weeks where an environmental statement is required. An invalid application does not start the clock, even if the fee has been paid and the file is open.

So the cost of a validation dispute is not the dispute. It is the time, and a four-week delay at validation is a four-week delay to the decision and, on a site with a funding deadline, sometimes a scheme-level problem.

Common local items and their basis

Most lists are reasonable in substance. The items that appear most often, and the policy hooks behind them:

• Drainage and surface water information, flowing from national flood risk policy and the lead local flood authority's role
• Ecology and biodiversity information, including a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal where habitats or protected species may be present
• Tree surveys to BS 5837 where trees are within influencing distance
• Air quality information for sites in or near an Air Quality Management Area
• Noise assessments for noise-generating uses or noise-sensitive development near existing sources
• Heritage information proportionate to the asset affected
• Parking and access details tied to the authority's adopted parking standards
• Contamination information where a previous use suggests it

What varies between authorities is the threshold at which each bites, and the format accepted. Some will take a completed proforma where others want a report.

Checking the list before submission

Download the current local list, note its publication date, and work through it against your scheme before you submit anything. Then do two further things.

Ask the authority, in writing, to confirm the list items it considers apply to your proposal. Many development management teams will do this as part of pre-application advice, and an email confirming the document schedule is useful evidence if the validation desk later disagrees.

And read the Planning Statement and Design and Access Statement as a validation officer would, checking that each document the list asks for is present, named as the list names it, and not buried inside another report. Half of validation refusals are about labelling rather than content.

Reform of plan-making and procedure continues, and the national requirements have changed more than once in recent years, so check the current order and the authority's current list rather than relying on a scheme from last year. The planning law timeline is the place to follow changes as they land.

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.