Decision times · North West
How long planning decisions take in Bury
53 days.
In the year to December 2026, the median planning application decided by Bury took 53 days from submission to decision — 3 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 497 decisions where the council published both dates.
This council carries a figure but no rank
Not ranked yet: our records do not yet pass the historical coverage, monthly continuity, missing-date and refresh checks for this window. The figure above is still what the published dates say; it is left out of the league table so it cannot distort the ranking. See the methodology.
How Bury compares
Year to December 2026
Bury decides faster than the country as a whole: 4 days below the national median of 57 days. Nationally 49% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 57%.
The average here is 67 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 113 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.
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Within eight weeks the statutory target 282 57%
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Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 135 27%
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Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 80 16%
By type of application
Year to December 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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Full applications 81 decided 72 days
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Conditions 23 decided 75 days
What Bury decides
Year to December 2026
Bury issued 497 decisions in the year to December 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 87% were approvals: 367 granted against 55 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 Bury?
The median planning application decided by Bury in the year to December 2026 took 53 days from submission to decision, 3 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 497 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date.
Does Bury meet the eight week target?
57% of the 497 decisions Bury made in the year to December 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 84% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 113 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.
Is Bury faster or slower than average?
Bury is faster than average: its median of 53 days is 4 days below the national median of 57 days.
What proportion of applications does Bury approve?
87% of the clear-cut outcomes Bury issued in the year to December 2026 were approvals: 367 granted against 55 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.
Cite these figures
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Bury planning decision times, year to December 2026: median 53 days from application to decision (3 days inside the eight week target), across 497 decisions with both dates published. 57% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 84% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 113 days. 87% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.
Or take the data itself: this council's history (CSV) or the full league table (CSV).
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