How long planning decisions take in West Suffolk

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 63 days, West Suffolk has moved up 110 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. Other 21 decided 28 days
2. Trees 444 decided 40 days
3. Amendments 100 decided 50 days
4. Conditions 274 decided 54 days
5. Prior approval 50 decided 55 days
6. Lawful development 74 decided 56 days
7. Householder 332 decided 61 days
8. Outline 10 decided 64 days
9. Heritage and listed buildings 105 decided 70 days
10. Advertising 35 decided 71 days
11. Full applications 196 decided 83 days

How these types compare nationally

West Suffolk issued 1,665 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 96% were approvals: 1,425 granted against 65 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.