Skip to content
PlanIndex Get alerts
Menu

Decision times · Scotland

How long planning decisions take in Dumfries and Galloway

48 days.

In the year to December 2026, the median planning application decided by Dumfries and Galloway took 48 days from submission to decision — 8 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 1,243 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.

48 days
Median decision 8 days inside the eight week target
61%
Within eight weeks 85% within thirteen
111 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Dumfries and Galloway compares

Year to December 2026

Dumfries and Galloway decides faster than the country as a whole: 9 days below the national median of 57 days. Nationally 49% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 61%.

The average here is 59 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 111 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 754 61%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 301 24%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 188 15%

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.

Dumfries and Galloway: median days from application to decision, by rolling twelve month window. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.
Twelve months to Median days UK rank
December 2024 51 9 of 57

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.

  1. Outline 230 decided 1 days
  2. Prior approval 108 decided 23 days
  3. Lawful development 22 decided 35 days
  4. Conditions 184 decided 36 days
  5. Trees 17 decided 43 days
  6. Advertising 18 decided 51 days
  7. Full applications 539 decided 59 days
  8. Heritage and listed buildings 103 decided 62 days

How these types compare nationally

What Dumfries and Galloway decides

Year to December 2026

Dumfries and Galloway issued 1,243 decisions in the year to December 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 95% were approvals: 1,075 granted against 52 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 Dumfries and Galloway?

The median planning application decided by Dumfries and Galloway in the year to December 2026 took 48 days from submission to decision, 8 days inside the eight week target. That is measured across 1,243 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date.

Does Dumfries and Galloway meet the eight week target?

61% of the 1,243 decisions Dumfries and Galloway made in the year to December 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 85% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 111 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Dumfries and Galloway faster or slower than average?

Dumfries and Galloway is faster than average: its median of 48 days is 9 days below the national median of 57 days.

What proportion of applications does Dumfries and Galloway approve?

95% of the clear-cut outcomes Dumfries and Galloway issued in the year to December 2026 were approvals: 1,075 granted against 52 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Dumfries and Galloway planning decision times, year to December 2026: median 48 days from application to decision (8 days inside the eight week target), across 1,243 decisions with both dates published. 61% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 85% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 111 days. 95% 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).

Embed these figures

Paste either snippet into your page. Click a snippet to select all of it. The credit line is part of the embed.

<script src="https://planindex.co.uk/embed/decision-times.js" data-council="dumfries-and-galloway" defer></script>

If your CMS strips scripts, use the frame directly:

<iframe src="https://planindex.co.uk/embed/decision-times/dumfries-and-galloway" title="Planning decision times in Dumfries and Galloway" width="100%" height="215" loading="lazy" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<p>Data: <a href="https://planindex.co.uk/planning-decision-times/dumfries-and-galloway">Planning decision times, from PlanIndex</a></p>