Planning decisions in Kirklees

How long Kirklees takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 3,079 decisions it made in the twelve months to September 2026. Days run from validation to decision, the clock the council reports against; the wait from receipt is shown beside it. How the figures are made.

56 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 54); 61 from receipt
56%decided within eight weeks (UK 66%), 80% within thirteen
89%approved (UK 90%): 2,606 approved, 316 refused, 48 withdrawn
309 of 388UK rank for speed, down 263 places on last year; 250 of 388 for approvals
056 October 2025: 62 days, 239 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 56 days, 235 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 56 days, 196 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 65 days, 230 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 66 days, 264 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 60 days, 300 decisionsMarApril 2026: 60 days, 236 decisionsAprMay 2026: 64 days, 204 decisionsMayJune 2026: 58 days, 279 decisionsJunJuly 2026: 61 days, 303 decisionsJulAugust 2026: 59 days, 261 decisionsAugSeptember 2026: 63 days, 332 decisionsSept
Median days from validation to decision, by month of decision. Dashed line: UK median (54 days). Grid at 56 and 91 days, the eight and thirteen week targets.

By kind of application

KindMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisionsUK rank
Tree works2199%92%55326 of 324
Discharge of conditions5847%94%288242 of 310
Lawful development certificates5655%75%182310 of 348
Listed building consent6732%95%134206 of 307
Amendments5166%83%123225 of 356
Prior approvals5468%79%83330 of 340
Advertisement consent5750%76%73252 of 320
Reserved matters7044%97%3416 of 45

Appeals

85 appeals against Kirklees decisions were decided by the Planning Inspectorate in the window, 27 for every 100 refusals; 28% were allowed. Every appeal in Kirklees.

By year

Year decidedMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisions
2016 *6626%92%1,615
2017 *5848%97%92
2018 *7024%95%158
2019 *5275%81%243
2020 *6645%86%66
2021 *7037%86%65
2022 *7323%84%63
2023 *1097%93%147
2024 *4369%84%219
2025 *1598%89%641
2026 so far6241%89%2,409

* Years from our archive, which carries no validation date: timed from receipt, so a few days longer than the live years above them.

Past their target date now

Decided in the last three weeks

Built nightly from Kirklees's planning register. Ranks are among the 388 published councils. See planning applications in Kirklees, appeals, or get alerts for Kirklees.

About these figures

How are decision times measured?
Days from the date the council validated the application to the date it decided it, for applications approved or refused in the window. That is the clock councils report against and the official statistics use. Each council’s page also shows the count from receipt, which is what the applicant actually waited. Withdrawn and undecided applications are not timed.
Why do these figures differ from the council’s own?
Councils count an agreed extension of time as decided on time; we treat the calendar as the calendar. Our figures are also live and rolling, where official statistics are quarterly and annual. So a council’s own within-eight-weeks figure will usually sit a little above ours.
What counts as approved?
Approval rate is approvals divided by approvals plus refusals. Withdrawals, and decisions whose outcome the register does not state, are counted in the totals but not in the rate.
Why is a council missing?
A council is published when it has at least 25 timed decisions in the window and its register’s decision data passes our consistency checks. Councils that fail are listed with the reason rather than shown with a number that would mislead.
How often is this updated?
Nightly, from the decisions we collect from every council register we monitor. The window is the twelve months to the last complete month.