How long planning decisions take in Ashford

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.

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 48 days, Ashford has moved down 160 places in the table.

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.

1. Other 12 decided 26 days
2. Prior approval 67 decided 39 days
3. Trees 218 decided 41 days
4. Amendments 139 decided 44 days
5. Conditions 263 decided 56 days
6. Lawful development 132 decided 56 days
7. Householder 366 decided 66 days
8. Advertising 27 decided 69 days
9. Heritage and listed buildings 117 decided 81 days
10. Full applications 223 decided 91 days

How these types compare nationally

Ashford issued 1,592 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 92% were approvals: 1,260 granted against 113 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.