How long planning decisions take in County Durham

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 66 days, County Durham has moved up 132 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. Trees 312 decided 37 days
2. Amendments 167 decided 42 days
3. Prior approval 152 decided 42 days
4. Conditions 253 decided 51 days
5. Advertising 87 decided 56 days
6. Outline 15 decided 56 days
7. Heritage and listed buildings 85 decided 57 days
8. Lawful development 62 decided 61 days
9. Full applications 773 decided 67 days
10. Reserved matters 14 decided 104 days

How these types compare nationally

County Durham issued 1,927 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 94% were approvals: 1,736 granted against 111 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.