Planning Application Performance

There are national targets set for how quickly councils decide planning applications, which are set by the department for Communities and Local Government.

See how well we did in meeting these targets during the last few financial years and so far this year. Definitions of the application types are at the bottom of the page.

The figures demonstrate improvements in Planning Application performance over the last 3 years.

It is important to put this into context. This period has been particularly challenging for all councils. Despite a reduction of around 35% of staff, we have managed the process to enable a range of procedural, system and management improvements, which, combined with the hard work of staff have enabled us to achieve this level of performance.

During this time we have also introduced a greater focus on customer service, a huge reduction in the backlog of older planning applications and implemented numerous changes as a result of a raft of new legislation. This includes the Localism Act and the National Planning Policy Framework.

Our work and performance is kept under regular review in an attempt to maintain the drive for continuing improvements.

'Majors’ are defined as residential developments of 10 or more units, or retail/commercial developments of more than 1000 square metres of additional floor space.

‘Minors’ are defined as residential developments of less than 10 units, or retail/commercial developments of 1000 square metres or less of additional floor space.

‘Others’ are defined as applications for advertisement consent, changes of use, listed building and conservation area consents and all householder applications.