Planning decisions in Mendip

How long Mendip takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 1,743 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.

49 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 54); 53 from receipt
73%decided within eight weeks (UK 66%), 89% within thirteen
85%approved (UK 90%): 1,374 approved, 242 refused, 78 withdrawn
79 of 388UK rank for speed, up 20 places on last year; 329 of 388 for approvals
056 October 2025: 49 days, 139 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 50 days, 114 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 48 days, 156 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 53 days, 158 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 53 days, 124 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 49 days, 121 decisionsMarApril 2026: 53 days, 178 decisionsAprMay 2026: 54 days, 117 decisionsMayJune 2026: 57 days, 139 decisionsJunJuly 2026: 52 days, 153 decisionsJulAugust 2026: 57 days, 165 decisionsAugSeptember 2026: 55 days, 179 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 works4193%96%351186 of 324
Householder applications5176%91%33635 of 200
Full applications6242%76%269218 of 359
Discharge of conditions4871%92%24889 of 310
Listed building consent5749%74%152134 of 307
Prior approvals2893%67%12791 of 340
Amendments4582%88%115155 of 356
Lawful development certificates5183%80%93156 of 348
Outline applications *7045%9%1457 of 110
Advertisement consent *5558%83%12174 of 320
Section 106 and planning obligations *7718%91%1119 of 29

Delegated or committee

RouteShareMedian daysApprovedDecisions
Delegated to officersover 99%4986%1,618
Planning committeeunder 1%13229%7

Where the register states how the decision was made. 118 decisions did not say.

By year

Year decidedMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisions
2016 *4969%98%234
2017 *2790%100%43
2018 *7038%94%34
2019 *2770%84%95
2020 *4665%99%351
2021 *4383%98%316
2022 *5653%85%147
2023 *2594%91%54
2024 *5844%96%25
2025 *2392%85%54
2026 so far5459%87%1,334

* 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 Mendip's planning register. Ranks are among the 388 published councils. See planning applications in Mendip, appeals, or get alerts for Mendip.

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.