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Decision times · North West

How long planning decisions take in Pendle

55 days. Ranked 115 of 343.

In the year to September 2026, the median planning application decided by Pendle took 55 days from submission to decision — 1 day inside the eight week target. That is measured across 298 decisions where the council published both dates.

55 days
Median decision 1 day inside the eight week target
115 of 343
UK rank up 62 places in a year
56%
Within eight weeks 75% within thirteen
182 days
Nine in ten decided by The wait to budget for

How Pendle compares

Year to September 2026

Pendle 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 56%.

The average here is 85 days, longer than the median because a handful of applications take very much longer than the rest. For planning around, 182 days is the more useful number: nine applications in ten were decided inside it.

  1. Within eight weeks the statutory target 168 56%
  2. Eight to thirteen weeks the major development band 55 18%
  3. Over thirteen weeks commonly an agreed extension 75 25%

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.

Pendle: 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 55 115 of 343
June 2026 62 244 of 328
March 2026 159 234 of 243
December 2025 167 224 of 236
September 2025 56 177 of 324
June 2025 54 74 of 313
March 2025 53 65 of 315
December 2024 51 46 of 319

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 56 days, Pendle has moved up 62 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. Trees 39 decided 10 days
  2. Amendments 14 decided 42 days
  3. Lawful development 13 decided 50 days
  4. Householder 72 decided 53 days
  5. Advertising 11 decided 60 days
  6. Full applications 87 decided 66 days
  7. Conditions 37 decided 72 days

How these types compare nationally

What Pendle decides

Year to September 2026

Pendle issued 298 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 87% were approvals: 198 granted against 29 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 Pendle?

The median planning application decided by Pendle in the year to September 2026 took 55 days from submission to decision, 1 day inside the eight week target. That is measured across 298 decisions where the council published both a start date and a decision date. It ranks 115 of 343 UK councils on decision speed.

Does Pendle meet the eight week target?

56% of the 298 decisions Pendle made in the year to September 2026 came within eight weeks of the application being received, and 75% within thirteen weeks. Nine in ten were decided within 182 days. Councils can agree an extension of time with an applicant, so a decision past eight weeks is not necessarily a missed deadline.

Is Pendle faster or slower than average?

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

Is Pendle getting faster or slower?

Against the same twelve month window a year earlier, when its median was 56 days, Pendle has moved up 62 places in the table. Its median has fallen by 1 day.

What proportion of applications does Pendle approve?

87% of the clear-cut outcomes Pendle issued in the year to September 2026 were approvals: 198 granted against 29 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes are excluded from that percentage.

Cite these figures

Click the text to select the whole citation.

Pendle planning decision times, year to September 2026: median 55 days from application to decision (1 day inside the eight week target), across 298 decisions with both dates published. 56% were decided within the eight week statutory target, 75% within thirteen weeks; nine in ten within 182 days. Ranked 115 of 343 UK councils on decision speed (national median 56 days). 87% of clear-cut outcomes were approvals. Source: PlanIndex, planindex.co.uk.