Boston Borough Council to introduce new planning validation requirements

Boston Borough Council have announced changes to their validation process for planning applications, aimed at supporting applicants, reducing costs associated with the process and supporting applications to come forward.

The Borough Council will revert to following national standards for application validation, with their existing local validation list becoming a guidance document for those submitting a planning application, rather than formal requirement. The local list was adopted in early 2019, however, following feedback over the past two years, the Council have decided to move back to national standards from April 1, 2021.

It is hoped the changes will support applications coming forward by ensuring that applicants are not put to undue expense, whilst the new guidance document will continue to support developers in submitting good quality applications, leading to a reduction in application processing times. The Council believe the move will ensure that they continue to receive the requisite information (proportionate to the proposal) to enable informed decision making, whilst avoiding unnecessary provision of information which can sometimes be costly and have limited bearing on the assessment of the proposal.