Planning App validation date

[Ktelobb]

Hi, wondered if anyone has had the same issues as us and if so, has any advice. We submitted our plans for full planning 4 weeks ago, we still don’t have a validation date? It’s taken the planning office nearly 4 weeks to tell us what’s outstanding from the application before they can proceed. The outstanding info was all submitted last Thursday and yet we still don’t have a validation date. It’s my understanding that your 8 wk timescale for response only starts when it’s validated and not when it was submitted? Very frustrating. 

[Dreadnaught]

Hi @Ktelobb, I feel for you.

 

I don't know if it will be the case with your local council, but with mine (Cambridge) validation is done a by a separate team (Application Support) before the applications passes in to the hands of the planning officer proper.

 

And, yes, the 8-week clock started at validation. (And in the end mine took more than five times the limit.)

[Roundtuit]

Other than confirming that your application is definitely in the system, I suspect that there's not much you can do.  Many on here have been frustrated with and by the planning system, but there's no choice but to go with the flow really.  On the plus side, it's a realisic introduction to the joys of self-building!?

[Ktelobb]

I wouldn’t mind but we bought the plot with planning permission agreed. We just didn’t like the style of the house that has consent, so we are back at the planning office with a new design, unfortunately this Means we had to go right back to the beginning with the whole planning process. 

[Dreadnaught]

@Ktelobb, yes, exactly the same with my plot.

 

And with mine, the council had adopted a new Local Plan in the intervening period which meant my new plans had some hurdles to jump (I ended up with a green roof as a result). It implied that the old approved design would not have been approved under the new Local Plan. 

[nod]

The planners do tend to play with your lives 

Which has been a source of frustration to most of us on here 

For me it was the only time I felt stressed throughout the build 

[Temp]

51 minutes ago, Ktelobb said:

I wouldn’t mind but we bought the plot with planning permission agreed. We just didn’t like the style of the house that has consent, so we are back at the planning office with a new design, unfortunately this Means we had to go right back to the beginning with the whole planning process. 

 

Same here. Still took me a year to get our PP changed. 

 

Meanwhilewe were living abroad so to attend a meeting with the planners sometimes involved a return air fare, hotel and car hire. Weeks would go by and we would find out the conservation officer had quit and we had to wait a month before her replacement started. Some planning staff weren't even full time, one only worked three days a week. Eventually found out they had told a previous owner the opposite of what they were telling us. Even when we got planning permission they lost brick samples sent recorded delivery delaying the discharge of conditions and our start date.

 

By contrast actually building the house was easier.

Edited January 19, 2020 by Temp