Decision times · East Midlands
How long planning decisions take in Ashfield
51 days. Ranked 50 of 343.
In the year to September 2026, the median planning application decided by Ashfield took 51 days from submission to decision — 5 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 134 decisions where the council published both dates.
How Ashfield compares
Year to September 2026
Ashfield decides faster than the country as a whole: 5 days below the national median of 56 days. Nationally 55% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 74%.
The average here is 65 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 105 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.
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Within eight weeks the statutory target 99 74%
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Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 14 10%
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Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 21 16%
The last few years
Each row is a full twelve months of decisions, ending in the quarter shown
Rolling twelve month windows overlap by nine months, so this reads as a trend rather than as four separate quarters. Only windows our records reach far enough back to measure in full are listed.
| Twelve months to | Median days | UK rank |
|---|---|---|
| September 2026 | 51 | 50 of 343 |
| June 2026 | 43 | 21 of 328 |
| September 2025 | 51 | 93 of 324 |
| June 2025 | 51 | 44 of 313 |
| March 2025 | 50 | 38 of 315 |
| December 2024 | 49 | 34 of 319 |
Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 51 days, Ashfield has moved up 43 places in the table.
By type of application
Year to September 2026 · types with at least ten decisions
The headline median mixes every kind of application together. A householder extension and an outline application for a housing site are not the same job, and the difference between them is usually larger than the difference between two councils.
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Lawful development 12 decided 48 days
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Full applications 65 decided 52 days
What Ashfield decides
Year to September 2026
Ashfield issued 134 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 78% were approvals: 63 granted against 18 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes sit outside that percentage rather than being counted as either.
Speed and approval rate are separate things. A council that refuses quickly is not doing the same job as one that negotiates an approval slowly, and neither figure alone says which served the applicant better.
Common questions
How long does a planning decision take in Ashfield?
The median planning application decided by Ashfield in the year to September 2026 took 51 days from submission to decision, 5 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 134 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date. It ranks 50 of 343 UK councils on decision speed.
Does Ashfield meet the eight week target?
74% of the 134 decisions Ashfield made in the year to September 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 84% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 105 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.
Is Ashfield faster or slower than average?
Ashfield is faster than average: its median of 51 days is 5 days below the national median of 56 days.
Is Ashfield getting faster or slower?
Against the same twelve month window a year earlier, when its median was 51 days, Ashfield has moved up 43 places in the table. Its median has not changed.
What proportion of applications does Ashfield approve?
78% of the clear-cut outcomes Ashfield issued in the year to September 2026 were approvals: 63 granted against 18 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.
Cite these figures
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Ashfield planning decision times, year to September 2026: median 51 days from application to decision (5 days inside the eight week target), across 134 decisions with both dates published. 74% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 84% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 105 days. Ranked 50 of 343 UK councils on decision speed (national median 56 days). 78% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.