How long planning decisions take in Wealden

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 39 days, Wealden has moved down 64 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. Amendments 83 decided 22 days
2. Other 109 decided 27 days
3. Lawful development 167 decided 39 days
4. Prior approval 18 decided 42 days
5. Trees 245 decided 47 days
6. Outline 46 decided 48 days
7. Conditions 582 decided 52 days
8. Advertising 26 decided 57 days
9. Full applications 796 decided 64 days
10. Heritage and listed buildings 91 decided 76 days

How these types compare nationally

Wealden issued 2,194 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 89% were approvals: 1,632 granted against 206 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.