Glossary
Validation: what a London council needs before assessing
Initial council check that an application contains all required documents and fees. Until validated, the 8-week determination clock does not start.
Initial council check that an application contains all required documents and fees. Until validated, the 8-week determination clock does not start.
Validation is the council's check that a planning application is complete before it is registered. The eight-week determination period starts at validation, not at submission, so an application missing a required document simply sits — often for weeks — before anyone assesses it.
The national requirements — a completed form, the correct fee, the ownership certificate, a location plan at 1:1250 with the site edged red, and plans identifying the land — plus the borough's own local validation list, which commonly adds a design and access statement, a heritage statement in a conservation area, a daylight assessment, an arboricultural report where trees are affected, and drainage details.
Unscaled or unnumbered drawings, a location plan at the wrong scale, elevations that do not match the plans, a missing north point, no existing drawings to compare against, an ownership certificate signed for the wrong certificate type, and the wrong fee. Each is trivial and each costs a week or more.
Every drawing should carry a unique number, a title, a scale, the paper size and a north point on plans. Officers print at reduced size, so a scale bar as well as a written scale is good practice.
There is no formal appeal, but a local validation list requirement can be challenged if it is not on the published list or is disproportionate to the application. Local lists must be published and reviewed, and items not on them cannot be demanded.
Validation in a Hounslow context: London Borough of Hounslow (Hounslow Council) runs 30 conservation areas including the Chiswick Conservation Area and the Bedford Park Conservation Area, and there is no borough-wide Article 4 direction, so permitted development generally survives outside conservation areas. That decides how validation is handled: £548 and 8 weeks for a Hounslow householder application, or £274 for the Lawful Development Certificate that records validation as lawful. The law behind validation sits in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the GPDO 2015 and the Building Regulations 2010.
| Clock starts at | Validation, not submission |
|---|---|
| Location plan | 1:1250, site edged red |
| Site plan | 1:500 or 1:200 |
| Drawings | Numbered, titled, scaled, with north point |
| Local list | Must be published and reviewed |
| Householder period | 8 weeks from validation |
Almost always a validation item — a missing statement, an unscaled drawing or the wrong fee.
No. It starts at validation.
No. Requirements must appear on the published local validation list.
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