draft Planning Validation Checklist

On 1 October 2024, the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) published legislation ‘The Planning (General Development Procedure) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2024’. It permits councils to develop and publish a Validation Checklist to specify the information and details that shall accompany any application. The new legislation comes into operation on 1 April 2025.

The purpose of the Validation Checklist is to avoid unnecessary delays in the planning application process by setting out, for the benefit of relevant parties, the level and type of supporting information required to be submitted with an application to make it a ‘valid’ application and enable it to be processed.

The Validation Checklist applies to applications for outline permission, full permission, and approval of reserved matters. Council has now prepared a draft Validation Checklist for the district.

The Planning Department is seeking your views on the draft Planning Application Validation Checklist. The consultation response will take less than 10 minutes to complete.

Consultation Period

The consultation period will run for 6 weeks from Monday 31 March to Monday 12 May 2025.

Please note: responses received after 12 May 2025 will not be considered.

Provide Feedback

You can provide your comments by completing the consultation survey via the following link

Email

Print, complete and email the feedback form to planning@nmandd.org

Post

Please post hard copy feedback form to:

Planning Department, Oifig an Iúir Newry Office, O’Hagan House, Monaghan Row, Newry BT 35 8DJ

Planning Department, Oifig Dhún Pádraig Downpatrick Office, Downshire Civic Centre, Downshire Estate,Ardglass Road, Downpatrick BT30 6GQ.

Telephone

Alternatively, you can contact Planning Reception on 0330 137 4036 and we will assist you to complete a response over the telephone.

Once the consultation period closes, we will consider the comments received before a final statutory Planning Application Validation Checklist is implemented.