Make sure your planning application is valid
When you submit a planning application, a Planning Officer will first check it to make sure you’ve provided all the required information. This is called ‘validation’.
An application is valid if have all the information we need to make a decision. If your application is missing information, we can’t process your application until we receive it.
Below, we’ve listed the 10 most common reasons why applications are invalid in Kingston. Making sure you include the right information in your application can help you avoid the delays caused by an invalid application.
Top 10 reasons planning applications are invalid
- Plan drawings don’t have the direction of north clearly marked on them. All plans must have compass north marked in relation to the planned work.
- Drawings not drawn to a recognised scale. All drawings must be to a scale recognised in our validation checklist (PDF, 497KB) and must clearly state and match the scale.
- Location plans don’t show a red outline around the site. The application site should be edged clearly with a red line on the location plan including land required for access to the site from a public highway. For applications relating to a dropped kerb, make sure the vehicle crossover and dropped kerb area is included within the red line.
- Drawings not labelled clearly, correctly, or at all. All drawings must be given a unique drawing number and a descriptive label (for example, ‘A01, existing first floor plan’ or ‘A02 proposed front elevation’).
- Inaccurate or incomplete plans and information. We give guidance on the drawings and other supporting information that we require with your application in our validation checklist (PDF, 497KB).
- Plan, elevation and/or section drawings which do not match each other. For example, doors or windows are not shown on both plan and elevation drawings, or are shown in inconsistent locations.
- Land registry plans submitted as Site Location Plans. We cannot accept land registry plans for a site location as they don’t scale correctly.
- Block plans don’t show the proposed development. All plans in applications for planning permission must show the planned development on the block plan.
- Retrospective applications do not have their plans clearly labelled. You need to label one drawing for the existing structure and one drawing for your proposed plan. You need to do this even if it’s already been built or the change of use has been implemented.
- Buildings that haven’t been built are shown on plans. Previous approved planning applications cannot be shown as existing if the planned extensions or building has not been built and completed on the site. You’ll need to remove the unbuilt development from your application, or reapply as part of your application for the consented but not yet built development.
Before you submit your application, we recommend that you review the national information requirements in the National Planning Practice Guidance on GOV.UK and our validation checklist (PDF, 497KB).
Speed up the decision making process
Plans and documents have to be in a certain format before we can put them for consultation on the planning register. If documents aren’t in the right format, our officers have to take time to amend them.
You can help us get applications onto the register and make decisions more quickly by making sure you:
- upload PDFs and drawings in separate files
- label drawings in a specific format (drawing number followed by description)
- remove all personal or sensitive information from plans and photographs (including telephone numbers, email addresses, car registration plates and people’s faces)
- check scale bars on plans measure correctly in accordance with stated scale
- use normal capitalisation in document titles, like ‘Existing ground and first floor plan’ - avoid using all caps