How long planning decisions take in Vale of White Horse

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, Vale of White Horse has moved down 13 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 69 decided 13 days
2. Trees 206 decided 21 days
3. Other 102 decided 28 days
4. Outline 37 decided 42 days
5. Amendments 95 decided 50 days
6. Conditions 359 decided 57 days
7. Lawful development 114 decided 57 days
8. Householder 387 decided 69 days
9. Advertising 24 decided 72 days
10. Heritage and listed buildings 116 decided 73 days
11. Full applications 156 decided 91 days

How these types compare nationally

Vale of White Horse issued 1,690 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 88% were approvals: 600 granted against 85 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.