Reading a council validation list properly

A local validation list is the document that decides whether your application gets registered. It is not policy. It does not tell you whether permission will be granted, and it differs from one authority to the next. Read it as a checklist with conditions attached, because most of its entries only apply when a trigger is met, and applicants routinely supply documents they did not need while missing the one that mattered.

Two layers sit in every list. National requirements, which every authority applies, and local requirements, which each authority sets for itself and has to publish.

National requirements against local ones

The national layer comes from the Development Management Procedure Order 2015 and the standard application form. In outline: the completed form, a site location plan and any other plans necessary to describe the development, the ownership certificate and agricultural holdings certificate, a design and access statement where one is required, and the correct fee. For most applications a community infrastructure levy additional information form is also needed.

The local layer rests on section 62(3) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which lets an authority require particulars beyond the national list. That power is limited. The Planning Practice Guidance is clear that a local requirement must be set out on a published local list, 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.

Those three tests are the ones to have in mind when an officer asks for something. The question is whether the requirement sits on the current list, whether it is proportionate to this application, and whether it is material to this decision.

Finding the current list and its review date

Authorities publish their lists in different places and under different names: local list of validation requirements, local information requirements, validation checklist. Search the authority's site for validation rather than for checklist, because the word validation is the one that appears in the page title more often.

Then find the date. Guidance expects local lists to be kept up to date and reviewed at least every two years, and a requirement on a list that has not been reviewed within that period is open to challenge. Lists also frequently reference documents that have since been superseded: an old local plan policy number, a withdrawn supplementary planning document, a flood risk standing advice note that has been replaced.

Note the version and date in your project file. When an officer later asks for something, you want to be able to say which published version you worked from.

Thresholds and triggers inside the list

This is where most of the value is. A well drafted list keys each requirement to a trigger, and reading the triggers carefully is what stops you commissioning work you do not need.

Typical trigger patterns:

Check each trigger against the facts of your site using the public datasets rather than assumption. Whether any part of the site is in a flood zone is a matter of record, and the surface water position can be checked separately, as our note on checking surface water flood risk explains. Designations around the site can be traced through MAGIC, and if a heritage asset is involved, reading the list entry tells you what the designation actually covers.

Where a trigger is not met, say so in the covering letter. One line, naming the requirement and the reason it does not apply, prevents a validation query.

Documents that are requested but not required

Lists and officers both sometimes ask for things that are not validation requirements at all.

The pattern to watch for:

• A document that appears on the list without a trigger, applied to a householder application where it is plainly disproportionate.
• A request for a report that is a building control matter, such as a structural calculation or a sound insulation test.
• A request for a specialist assessment where the underlying constraint does not exist on the site.
• A requirement referring to a policy that is no longer in the adopted plan.
• A request for pre application advice to have been obtained, which cannot be a validation requirement.

Distinguish between the officer wanting something and the application being invalid without it. Both can be reasonable requests, and only one of them stops the clock. Where a document would help the determination but is not required for validation, offer to provide it during the eight weeks rather than holding the submission.

There is a matching discipline on the other side. If a Flood Risk Assessment or a Heritage Statement is triggered, a thin version is worse than none, because it becomes the document the objectors quote.

Challenging an invalidation

If an authority refuses to register an application, the sequence that works:

1. Ask, in writing, which requirement is not met and where it appears on the published local list, with the list's publication date.
2. Test it against the three statutory and policy tests: on a current published list, proportionate to this development, material to the determination.
3. Respond in writing setting out why the requirement does not apply, or why it is disproportionate, citing section 62(3) and the Planning Practice Guidance on making an application.
4. If the authority maintains its position, use its formal complaints procedure, and the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman after that.
5. Weigh the alternative. Producing the document is often faster and less expensive than winning the argument, and that is a commercial judgement rather than a matter of principle.

Two practical points. There is no appeal against invalidation, because there is no application to appeal until it is valid. And an application held as invalid is not accruing time towards the determination period, so a fortnight of correspondence is a fortnight lost.

Pre-application confirmation of requirements

The cleanest way to avoid all of this is to ask for the document list in writing before submission.

Where you take formal pre application advice, include a specific question: please confirm the documents required to validate an application for the development described. A written answer from the authority is not binding in law, but an officer who has confirmed a list rarely invalidates against it, and if a different officer does, you have something to point at.

Where the fee for formal advice is not justified, many authorities answer a short validation enquiry by email without charge. Ask the question narrowly, attach the site location plan and a one paragraph description, and keep the reply.

Assembling the pack against the list

Build a matrix and work through it. One row per requirement, four columns: the requirement as worded on the list, whether the trigger is met, the document that satisfies it, and its status.

Then check the mechanical things that cause more invalidations than missing reports do:

• Plans at a stated metric scale, with a scale bar and a north point on every drawing.
• The site location plan showing the application site edged red and any other adjoining land in the applicant's ownership edged blue.
• The correct ownership certificate signed, with notice served on any other owner where certificate B applies.
• The agricultural holdings certificate completed, which is a separate certificate and frequently forgotten.
• Drawing numbers and revisions listed consistently between the form, the covering letter and the drawings themselves.
• The fee calculated for the right category, and the levy additional information form completed.

Finish with a covering letter that lists every document submitted and, in one short paragraph, the requirements that do not apply and why. That letter is the single most useful thing you can put in front of a validation officer, and it costs twenty minutes.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Validation requirements are set by each authority and change, so check the current published list 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.