How long planning decisions take in Cherwell

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 56 days, Cherwell has moved down 17 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. Telecoms 97 decided 27 days
2. Amendments 91 decided 28 days
3. Other 43 decided 28 days
4. Trees 361 decided 39 days
5. Prior approval 15 decided 42 days
6. Lawful development 95 decided 59 days
7. Conditions 392 decided 62 days
8. Full applications 605 decided 74 days
9. Heritage and listed buildings 127 decided 76 days
10. Advertising 29 decided 80 days
11. Outline 34 decided 92 days

How these types compare nationally

Cherwell issued 1,942 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 93% were approvals: 1,626 granted against 124 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.