Skip to content
PlanIndex Get alerts
Menu

Decision times · Wales

How long planning decisions take in Flintshire

55 days. Ranked 106 of 343.

In the year to September 2026, the median planning application decided by Flintshire took 55 days from submission to decision — 1 day inside the eight week target. That is measured across 813 decisions where the council published both dates.

55 days
Median decision 1 day inside the eight week target
106 of 343
UK rank down 2 places in a year
58%
Within eight weeks 82% within thirteen
114 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Flintshire compares

Year to September 2026

Flintshire decides faster than the country as a whole: 1 day below the national median of 56 days. Nationally 55% of applications are decided within eight weeks; here it is 58%.

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, 114 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 471 58%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 194 24%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 148 18%

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.

Flintshire: median days from application to decision, by rolling twelve month window. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.
Twelve months to Median days UK rank
September 2026 55 106 of 343
June 2026 54 106 of 328
March 2026 52 91 of 243
December 2025 48 80 of 236
September 2025 52 104 of 324
June 2025 55 108 of 313
March 2025 55 108 of 315
December 2024 55 107 of 319

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 52 days, Flintshire has moved down 2 places in the table.

By type of application

Year to September 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. Prior approval 27 decided 23 days
  2. Amendments 50 decided 24 days
  3. Trees 30 decided 42 days
  4. Lawful development 58 decided 51 days
  5. Conditions 138 decided 53 days
  6. Advertising 40 decided 55 days
  7. Full applications 436 decided 58 days
  8. Heritage and listed buildings 18 decided 61 days

How these types compare nationally

What Flintshire decides

Year to September 2026

Flintshire issued 813 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 90% were approvals: 649 granted against 72 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 Flintshire?

The median planning application decided by Flintshire in the year to September 2026 took 55 days from submission to decision, 1 day inside the eight week target. That is measured across 813 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date. It ranks 106 of 343 UK councils on decision speed.

Does Flintshire meet the eight week target?

58% of the 813 decisions Flintshire made in the year to September 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 82% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 114 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Flintshire faster or slower than average?

Flintshire is faster than average: its median of 55 days is 1 day below the national median of 56 days.

Is Flintshire getting faster or slower?

Against the same twelve month window a year earlier, when its median was 52 days, Flintshire has moved down 2 places in the table. Its median has risen by 3 days.

What proportion of applications does Flintshire approve?

90% of the clear-cut outcomes Flintshire issued in the year to September 2026 were approvals: 649 granted against 72 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Flintshire planning decision times, year to September 2026: median 55 days from application to decision (1 day inside the eight week target), across 813 decisions with both dates published. 58% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 82% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 114 days. Ranked 106 of 343 UK councils on decision speed (national median 56 days). 90% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.