On. planning lawyer’s blog there is a rant about how difficult local authorities make it to have planning applications validated – with rigid checklists that do not always suit the type of application being made.

Be that as it may, one of the comments says it all for us poor proles trying to ensure that dodgy developers don’t shirk their responsibilities:

Dr Anton Lang MRTPI said…
Hear, hear. As the someone who actually stood up to this nonsense and ended up at a judicial review leading to the revised Guidance on Validation having to be issued, I applaud you for keeping this matter alive. The guidance has not gone far enough and local authorities still ask for a gamut of unnecessary supporting information they do not really need, nor understand. Roll back the actual legislation and make everything simpler and at the applicant’s discretion. The tail has been wagging the dog for too long. The lpas [local planning authorities] are there to serve the applicants and NOT the other way round.

So now we know!

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8170718846507476773&postID=7411782539593349100&isPopup=true